Elanco resists calls to pull Seresto pet collars from market, says they are safe

Elanco Animal Health is standing firm behind one of its leading pet products, a flea and tick collar that has been linked to more than 1,000 pet deaths, even as an influential Congressman is asking for a recall.

Greenfield-based Elanco said Friday it “stands behind the safety data” of the pest-control collar, sold under the brand name Seresto. It said all data and scientific evaluation supports Seresto’s safety and effectiveness.

“Therefore, no market action, such as a recall, is warranted, nor has it been suggested by any regulatory agency,” Elanco said in its statement.

A report earlier this month by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and USA Today found that thousands of cats and dogs are being harmed by the pesticide chemicals released by the Seresto collar.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates pesticides, has received reports of at least 1,698 pet deaths, the report said. Through June 2020, the agency has received more than 75,000 incident reports related to the collars, including nearly 1,000 involving human harm.

Between 2013 and 2018, the EPA received 907 adverse incidents involving humans, including rashes, hives, and neurological reactions, such as numbness and headaches. In one case, a 12-year-old boy who slept in a bed with a dog wearing a Seresto collar started having seizures and vomited. He had to be hospitalized. In another case, a 67-year-old woman who slept in a bed with a dog wearing a collar reported having heart arrhythmia and fatigue.

Seresto was developed by German conglomerate Bayer AG, which sold its animal heath unit to Elanco last year for $6.9 billion.

More than 25 million Seresto collars have been sold in the U.S. since the product was registered with the EPA in 2012, Elanco said.

Seresto is a leading consumer product for Elanco. In its 2019 annual report, before selling its animal health unit to Elanco, Bayer reported revenue of more than $300 million on Seresto alone.

Amazon, where Serestro is the top-selling pet collar, also has received “numerous complaints” about the product from customers who detailed significant issues, the report said. Dozens of people have claimed the collar caused skin rashes to their pets, while others said it led to neurological issues.

Amazon has not removed the product from its online marketplace.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois who is chair of the House Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, has urged Elanco to remove the collars from the market, at least temporarily.

“I think that it’s only appropriate in this case that the manufacturer do a voluntary recall,” he told CBS News. “We look at the situation, investigate and then proceed from there.”

Elanco said it is cooperating with the subcommittee’s request for information, but called the news report “misleading”  and its claims “widely refuted by toxicologists and veterinarians.”

“There is no medical or scientific basis to initiate a recall of Seresto collars and we are disappointed this is causing confusion and unfounded fear for pet owners trying to protect their pets from fleas ands ticks,” Dr. Tony Rumschlag, Elanco’s senior director for technical consultants, said in a written statement.

Since Seresto hit the U.S. market nine years ago, the incident rate report for all adverse events in the U.S. has been below 0.3%, the company said.

The investigative report was based on federal documents obtained through a public records request from the Center for Biological Diversity, a not-for-profit organization that acts as a watchdog on the EPA as part of its work to protect endangered species.

The center provided the documents to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, a not-for-profit news organization based in Champaign, Illinois.