Insecticide Resistance Profiles and Synergism of Field Aedes aegypti from Indonesia.

Information on the insecticide resistance profiles of Aedes aegypti in Indonesia is fragmentary because of the lack of wide-area insecticide resistance surveillance. We collected Ae. aegypti from 32 districts and regencies in 27 Indonesian provinces and used WHO bioassays to evaluate their resistance to deltamethrin, permethrin, bendiocarb, and pirimiphos-methyl. To determine the possible resistance mechanisms of Ae. aegypti, synergism tests were conducted using piperonyl butoxide (PBO) and S,S,S-tributylphosphorotrithioates (DEF). The Ae. aegypti from all locations exhibited various levels of resistance to pyrethroids. Their resistance ratio (RR50) to permethrin and deltamethrin ranged from 4.08× to 127× and from 4.37× to 72.20×, respectively. In contrast with the findings of other studies, most strains from the highly urbanized cities on the island of Java (i.e., Banten, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya) exhibited low to moderate resistance to pyrethroids. By contrast, the strains collected from the less populated Kalimantan region exhibited very high resistance to pyrethroids. The possible reasons are discussed herein. Low levels of resistance to bendiocarb (RR50, 1.24-6.46×) and pirimiphos-methyl (RR50, 1.01-2.70×) were observed in all tested strains, regardless of locality. PBO and DEF synergists significantly increased the susceptibility of Ae. aegypti to permethrin and deltamethrin and reduced their resistance ratio to less than 16×. The synergism tests suggested the major involvement of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases and esterases in conferring pyrethroid resistance. On the basis of our results, we proposed a 6-month rotation of insecticides (deltamethrin + synergists ➝ bendiocarb ➝ permethrin + synergists ➝ pirimiphos-methyl) and the use of an insecticide mixture containing pyrethroid and pyrimiphos-methyl to control Ae. aegypti populations and overcome the challenge of widespread Ae. aegypti resistance to pyrethroid in Indonesia.

Ovitrap surveillance of dengue vector mosquitoes in Bandung City, West Java Province, Indonesia.

Larval surveillance is the central approach for monitoring dengue vector populations in Indonesia. However, traditional larval indices are ineffective for measuring mosquito population dynamics and predicting the dengue transmission risk. We conducted a 14-month ovitrap surveillance. Eggs and immature mosquitoes were collected on a weekly basis from an urban village of Bandung, namely Sekejati. Ovitrap-related indices, namely positive house index (PHI), ovitrap index (OI), and ovitrap density index (ODI), were generated and correlated with environmental variables, housing type (terraced or high-density housing), ovitrap placement location (indoor or outdoor; household or public place), and local dengue cases. Our results demonstrated that Aedes aegypti was significantly predominant compared with Aedes albopictus at each housing type and ovitrap placement location. Ovitrap placement locations and rainfall were the major factors contributing to variations in PHI, OI, and ODI, whereas the influences of housing type and temperature were subtle. Indoor site values were significantly positively correlated to outdoor sites' values for both OI and ODI. OI and ODI values from households were best predicted with those from public places at 1- and 0-week lags, respectively. Weekly rainfall values at 4- and 3-week lags were the best predictors of OI and ODI for households and public places, respectively. Monthly mean PHI, OI, and ODI were significantly associated with local dengue cases. In conclusion, ovitrap may be an effective tool for monitoring the population dynamics of Aedes mosquitoes, predicting dengue outbreaks, and serving as an early indicator to initiate environmental clean-up. Ovitrap surveillance is easy for surveyors if they are tasked with a certain number of ovitraps at a designated area, unlike the existing larval surveillance methodology, which entails identifying potential breeding sites largely at the surveyors' discretion. Ovitrap surveillance may reduce the influence of individual effort in larval surveillance that likely causes inconsistency in results.

Effects of temperature on the development and population growth of the melon thrips, Thrips palmi, on eggplant, Solanum melongena.

The effects of temperature on the melon thrips, Thrips palmi Karny (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), preimaginal development, survival, fecundity, longevity of females and males, and population growth were investigated at 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, and 31° C, 70-80% RH, and a photoperiod of 12:12 L:D. The results indicated that the duration of egg, larval, and pupal stages was significantly influenced by increased temperature. The egg-to-adult developmental period of T. palmi declined from 35.7 to 9.6 days as the temperature increased from 16 to 31° C. The developmental threshold temperature estimated for egg-to-adult was 11.25° C, with a thermal constant of 196.1 degree-days. The developmental threshold temperature was 13.91, 11.82, 9.36, and 10.45° C for adult preoviposition period, total preoviposition period, female longevity, and male longevity, respectively. The thermal constants for completing the adult preoviposition period, total preoviposition period, female longevity, and male longevity were 29.3, 227.3, 454.6, and 344.8 degree-days, respectively. Female longevity was found to be shortest at 31° C (18.7 days) and longest at 16° C (56.7 days), and male longevity was shortest at 31° C (15.5 days) and longest at 16° C (50.7 days). Fecundity was highest at 25° C (64.2 eggs/female) and lowest at 16° C (23.4 eggs/female). The population trend index of T. palmi was highest at 25° C (31.3) and lowest at 16° C (7.6). The optimal developmental temperature for T. palmi in eggplant, Solanum melongena L. (Solanales: Solanaceae), was determined to be 25° C.

A dengue vector surveillance by human population-stratified ovitrap survey for Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae) adult and egg collections in high dengue-risk areas of Taiwan.

Aedes aegypti L. is the primary dengue vector in southern Taiwan. This article is the first report on a large-scale surveillance program to study the spatial-temporal distribution of the local Ae. aegytpi population using ovitraps stratified according to the human population in high dengue-risk areas. The sampling program was conducted for 1 yr and was based on weekly collections of eggs and adults in Kaohsiung City. In total, 10,380 ovitraps were placed in 5,190 households. Paired ovitraps, one indoors and one outdoors were used per 400 people. Three treatments in these ovitraps (paddle-shaped wooden sticks, sticky plastic, or both) were assigned by stratified random sampling to two areas (i.e., metropolitan or rural, respectively). We found that the sticky plastic alone had a higher sensitivity for detecting the occurrence of indigenous dengue cases than other treatments with time lags of up to 14 wk. The wooden paddle alone detected the oviposition of Ae. aegypti throughout the year in this study area. Furthermore, significantly more Ae. aegypti females were collected indoors than outdoors. Therefore, our survey identified the whole year oviposition activity, spatial-temporal distribution of the local Ae. aegypti population and a 14 wk lag correlation with dengue incidence to plan an effectively proactive control.

Emergency vector control in a DENV-2 outbreak in 2002 in Pingtung City, Pingtung County, Taiwan.

This paper reports the strategy and effectiveness of an emergency control program conducted in Pingtung City, Taiwan in response to dengue outbreaks. In our control strategy, we carried out 3 insecticide space sprays with an interval of 6-7 days and 2 source reductions to cover the entire duration of dengue virus exposure in humans and mosquito vectors. The control effect was demonstrated by a significant reduction in the Breteau (51.1%) and larval (80.0%) indices, but no such effect was demonstrated by alterations in the adult index (54.9%), house index (45.0%), container index (33.8%), or by indoor (15.8%), outdoor (31.2%), or total water-filled containers (22.7%) per 100 premises examined. The contribution made by the reduction in the number of positive containers was primarily in the outdoor (77.2%), and not the indoor containers (-6.0%). This reduction attributed to an overall reduction of 96.0% Aedes albopictus larvae and 71.0% Aedes aegypti. Therefore, 4 weeks after this extensive emergency control measure, the number of dengue cases dropped to one. Finally, due to both the decrease in temperature resulting from the upcoming winter, and to the sustained effort toward source reduction, the transmission cycle of DENV-2 in Pingtung City was interrupted at the beginning of 2003, and no additional cases were identified in late 2003.