Is your pet wearing a Seresto flea and tick collar? If so, you might want to find them and take it off.
According to newly released records referenced by USA Today, the popular flea and tick collar brand failed to report 11,000 incidents to the federal government since last year. Incidents have included seizures, skin irritations and deaths among cats and dogs.
Flea and tick collars such as the Seresto collar release small amounts of pesticide onto animals for months at a time. Pesticides from the collar is intended to kill fleas, ticks and other pests. In Seresto’s case, the pesticides used are imidacloprid and flumethrin.
Seresto was already linked with more adverse incidents than any other similar product, said the USA Today. Including the new incidents reported, the total number connected to the collar has reached 86,000 since it went on the market in 2012 through this March.
Under federal pesticide law, companies are required to report incidents of harm to the Environmental Protection Agency. Bayer formerly owned Seresto and had reported incidents to the EPA until it sold the company, along with its entire Animal Health division, to Elanco for $7.6 billion in 2020. By that time, the agency had received approximately 75,000 incident reports from Bayer.
EPA staff had repeatedly raised concerns about these reports and called representatives of Bayer in for meetings multiple times said USA Today. However, the public was never warned about the collar’s risks.
Elanco, on the other hand, failed to submit any incident reports until an investigation by USA Today and the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. This investigation revealed a high number of incidents connected to the product under Bayer.
The investigation prompted inquiries to the EPA by a congressional oversight committee and the office of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
A lawsuit was also filed by the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity for the release of records, along with class action suits.
In July, the EPA asked for public comment on a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity. Following the investigative report, the EPA also reached out to Elanco.
“It's strange," EPA pesticide incident coordinator Robert Miller wrote in an email in March. "Elanco sent us incident reports for other products but not for Seresto.”
By March 10, more EPA personnel were on the case as well.
“They actually have them and (said they were) instructed to hold onto them until COVID ended,” wrote Kimberly Smith, a branch chief in the EPA registration division, on March 10 of Elanco. “Not sure who gave that directive, but most people thought COVID would be over in a few months from when it started. No one knew it would still be here a year later and counting.”
Elanco spokeswoman Keri McGrath attributed the situation to a miscommunication over COVID-19, said USA Today.
“This issue was subsequently addressed with EPA as the pandemic continued, and we have submitted reports as required via an electronic method following communications from the EPA,” McGrath said in an emailed statement, according to the outlet.
The EPA requested more time to comment.
Karen McCormack, a retired EPA employee who worked as both a scientist and communications officer, said global data shows that 1 in 568 users of Seresto have an incident. Most are related to non-serious effects such as reddening or hair loss near the collar.
Incidents have impacted humans as along with their pets, said USA Today. From 2013 to 2018, 907 incidents were reported in humans and 19 were considered severe by the EPA. Most were symptoms such as a rash or hives and seven had neurological symptoms including numbness and headaches.
Some of the human incidents related to the Seresto collar reported to the EPA included a 12-year-old boy with seizures and vomiting, a 67-year-old woman with heart arrhythmia and fatigue and a 43-year old man who developed ear drainage as well as nasal and throat irritation who was told by a doctor that he had a hole in his ear drum. All of the humans slept with the dogs while they wore the collars.
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