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In early March 2021, readers inquired about a news story that concerned Seresto flea collars. USA Today and Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting co-published the article. Its headline read: Popular flea collar linked to almost 1,700 pet deaths. The EPA has issued no warning. One reader asked: I'm interested in knowing if Seresto flea collars are really linked to pet deaths and the EPA isn't issuing warnings. Another reader emailed with an inquiry about whether the products were causing death in pets. The product description for Seresto flea collars claims it offers continuous 8-month flea and tick protection. A variety of collars are available for both dogs and cats. According to the investigation: Since Seresto flea and tick collars were introduced in 2012, the EPA has received incident reports of at least 1,698 related pet deaths. Overall, through June 2020, the agency has received more than 75,000 incident reports related to the collars, including nearly 1,000 involving human harm. The reporting cited documents from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the records were obtained through a public records request from the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that watchdogs the EPA as part of its work to protect endangered species. We reached out to the EPA for further information. Initially, we received the following statement from an agency spokesperson: In order to dig deeper, we inquired about the EPA documentation that appeared in the investigation. In response, the agency described the way that incidents are recorded. They told us that all incidents are documented in a special system. However, there is no requirement under FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act) to look into such incidents. They said that some may be compelling cases that establish links between a product and an incident, while others might be the opposite. Further, the EPA mentioned that incidents may sometimes come down to the pet owner improperly using the products in question: The EPA spokesperson also provided further detailed guidance on how it would determine whether a pet collar was safe. In layman's terms, this portion of the statement said that the EPA has a comprehensive process to determine a product's safety for the environment. Also, some pets might be more sensitive than others and may experience adverse symptoms after treatment: The EPA advised us about two pesticides present in Seresto flea collars: imidacloprid and flumethrin. The EPA published documentation about the safety of both pesticides in early 2020: We read through the January 2020 documentation for imidacloprid. The EPA's proposed interim registration review decision came to the following conclusion on risk assessment: The updated residential handler and post-application exposure risk estimates for the registered pet collar use of imidacloprid are not of concern (i.e., MOEs ≥ 100) for all scenarios. (MOEs refers to the margin of exposure, an approach that calculates health risk.) We also reviewed the March 2020 report for flumethrin. The EPA's interim registration review decision said the following of its risk assessment: The agency has determined that there are no risks of concern associated with the registered use of flumethrin. As a result, the agency is not requiring any mitigation. Bayer was once the company that made Seresto flea collars. We contacted the company with questions but did not hear back. Instead, Elanco, a pharmaceutical company that purchased the Bayer Animal Health division in 2020, provided a response. In 2021, the Bayer name still appeared on Seresto products, but that was set to change to Elanco following a transition period. An Elanco spokesperson claimed that the USA Today/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting article was very misleading and that there was no established link between death and exposure: The Elanco spokesperson elaborated, saying they continuously monitor the safety of its products on an on-going basis. They also told us that more than 80 regulatory authorities around the world, including the US EPA, rigorously reviewed the safety data collected over the course of Seresto’s development prior to registration and/or approval, as appropriate. Regarding the more than 75,000 total incidents with Seresto flea collars, they said that a significant majority were application site issues – reddening of the skin or hair loss below the collar. The investigation also cited nearly 1,000 incidents that were purportedly about humans being harmed by the pet collars. An EPA document from early 2020 spelled out some specifics. Dermal symptoms were reported most often for the major severity incidents. The report mentioned rash, redness, skin lesions, hives, and pruritus. (Pruritus is itchy skin.) Neurological symptoms were also noted in the document, including headaches, numbness, tingling, and one person reported seizures. In our correspondence with the EPA, we asked how the agency would advise concerned pet owners trying to decide if it's safe to use Seresto flea and tick collar products. The EPA said that pet owners should consult with their veterinarian: We reached out to Johnathan Hettinger with the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, who authored the investigation, in order to share the statements from the EPA and Elanco. Hettinger told us that he stands by his investigation: After this fact check was published, an Elanco spokesperson provided a response to Hettinger's reaction. They mentioned that detailed information provided to Hettinger prior to the investigation being published was ignored. In sum, an investigation about Seresto flea collars was co-published by USA Today and Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. EPA data consisting of 1,698 reported incidents of pets dying after they had come into contact with a Seresto flea collar figured prominently in that investigation. We reviewed the EPA data ourselves and spoke to the agency. In general, the information submitted to and compiled by the EPA is insufficient to draw a clear causal link between use of the product and the reported deaths. We have thus rated this claim as Unproven. After this fact check was published, on March 18, 2021, CBS News reported that some members of Congress requested a temporary recall of Seresto flea collars: U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, also tweeted: A pesticide on the Seresto pet collar aimed to kill fleas may also be harming the pets themselves and their humans. I’m getting to the bottom of it and requesting they be recalled through my investigation. An Elanco spokesperson told CBS News that they would not be issuing a recall. That would be up to regulators, they said.
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