A Dietary Plant Extract Formulation Helps Reduce Flea Populations in Cats: A Double-Blind Randomized Study

Abstract

There is a growing demand for natural products to be used to control fleas in pets. A prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study evaluated the efficacy of the biological plant-based food supplement Bioticks^® (thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, fenugreek, wormwood, and lemongrass extracts) as a flea control product in naturally flea-infested cats with an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Ten cats were used as placebo controls (group A). Ten other cats were fed the same daily diet but supplemented with Bioticks^® (group B). Fleas were counted by combing at D0 and D0 + 14 days, then one, two, three, four, and five months after the start of this study. No flea treatment was administered, and no environmental changes were made for six months prior to the start and throughout this study. The product was well-tolerated. The mean flea population in group B progressively and steadily decreased to reach 3.3 ± 2.1 at month five. At the same time and under similar maintenance conditions, the average flea population in group A remained stable (14.3 ± 2.5) until the fifth month. The percentages of efficacy (Abbott formula) in group B compared to group A was 27%, 20%, 52%, 66%, and 77%, respectively, at one, two, three, four, and five months after the start of this study.

Keywords: cat; dermatology; flea; insecticide; natural; plant.

Figure 1

Distribution of the number of fleas per animal in each group according to the type of diet (red box = neutral, green box = supplemented) and to the time after the beginning of this study. In each box, the horizontal line represents the median value, the borders represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, and the whiskers show the range of all values. The red cross corresponds to the mean value. Stars * indicate a significant difference between groups (p ≤ 0.05).