The present invention relates to flea peritrophin proteins； to fleaperitrophin nucleic acid molecules, including those that encode such fleaperitrophin proteins； to antibodies raised against such proteins； and tocompounds that inhibit the activity of such proteins. The present inventionalso includes methods to obtain and use such proteins, nucleic acid molecules,antibodies, and inhibitory compounds. The present invention also includestherapeutic compositions comprising such inhibitory compounds, particularlythose that specifically inhibit flea peritrophin activity, as weell as the useof such therapeutic compositions to treat animals.
