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- Title
Control of Pyrethroid-Resistant Chagas Disease Vectors with Entomopathogenic Fungi.
- Authors
Pedrini, Nicolás; Mijailovsky, Sergio J.; Girotti, Juan R.; Stariolo, Raúl; Cardozo, Rubén M.; Gentile, Alberto; Juárez, M. Patricia
- Abstract
Background: Triatoma infestans-mediated transmission of Tripanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, remains as a major health issue in southern South America. Key factors of T. infestans prevalence in specific areas of the geographic Gran Chaco region-which extends through northern Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay-are both recurrent reinfestations after insecticide spraying and emerging pyrethroid-resistance over the past ten years. Among alternative control tools, the pathogenicity of entomopathogenic fungi against triatomines is already known; furthermore, these fungi have the ability to fully degrade hydrocarbons from T. infestans cuticle and to utilize them as fuel and for incorporation into cellular components. Methodology and Findings: Here we provide evidence of resistance-related cuticle differences; capillary gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry analyses revealed that pyrethroid-resistant bugs have significantly larger amounts of surface hydrocarbons, peaking 56.266.4% higher than susceptible specimens. Also, a thicker cuticle was detected by scanning electron microscopy (32.165.9 mm and 17.865.4 mm for pyrethroid-resistant and pyrethroidsusceptible, respectively). In laboratory bioassays, we showed that the virulence of the entomopathogenic fungi Beauveria bassiana against T. infestans was significantly enhanced after fungal adaptation to grow on a medium containing insect-like hydrocarbons as the carbon source, regardless of bug susceptibility to pyrethroids. We designed an attraction-infection trap based on manipulating T. infestans behavior in order to facilitate close contact with B. bassiana. Field assays performed in rural village houses infested with pyrethroid-resistant insects showed 52.4% bug mortality. Using available mathematical models, we predicted that further fungal applications could eventually halt infection transmission.
- Subjects
SOUTHERN Cone of South America; GRAN Chaco; CHAGAS' disease; ENTOMOPATHOGENIC fungi; TRIATOMA; HYDROCARBONS; DISEASE vectors; PARASITIC diseases; PYRETHROIDS
- Publication
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2009, Vol 3, Issue 5, p1
- ISSN
1935-2727
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pntd.0000434