Isoxazoline drugs for mosquito control

Vector-borne diseases are increasingly important in the USA and the number of human vector-borne illnesses is rising. As part of a newly announced national strategy published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, there is a call for the development and evaluation of improved vector control tools and approaches. Isoxazoline drugs are the newest generation of systemic drugs currently prescribed by veterinarians for flea-and- tick control in dogs and cats and are in wide-spread use by pet owners in the USA and Europe. Isoxazoline drugs are fast-acting, have very long residual activity (i.e., months), and low mammalian toxicity. Our studies and those of others, demonstrate that isoxazoline-treated animals will kill mosquitoes that fedon them. This project focuses on the use of these drugs as mosquito control agents with the aim of determining how long a single dose of drug can continue to kill mosquitoes that feed on treated animals. Specifically, the project will establish the duration of mosquitocidal efficacy for two isoxazoline drugs, fluralaner and lotilaner when these drugs are ingested by relevant vertebrate species involved in the continuance of two important mosquito-borne diseases: namely songbirds (=amplifying hosts of West Nile virus) and cattle (=important host for zoophagic Anopheles vectors of malaria). This research will determine the feasibility and likelihood of success for a strategy that utilizes these drugs to reduce local mosquito vector populations. If successful, this strategy represents a new option of mosquito control that is compatible and can be integrated with other control options to reduce mosquito-borne diseases.