**Current Status of the Insecticide Resistance in** *Aedes aegypti* **(Diptera: Culicidae) from Mexico**

Adriana E. Flores-Suarez, Gustavo Ponce-Garcia, Beatriz Lopez-Monroy, Olga Karina Villanueva-Segura, Iram Pablo Rodriguez-Sanchez, Juan Ignacio Arredondo-Jimenez and Pablo Manrique-Saide

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/61526

#### **Abstract**

The mosquito *Aedes aegypti* (Diptera: Culicidae) is the primary vector of dengue in Mexi‐ co and lately virus Chikungunya, although *Aedes albopictus* is widely distributed; its role in both diseases' transmission has not been confirmed. The control of mosquitoes in Mex‐ ico includes source reduction consisting in the elimination of containers that are favorable sites for oviposition and development of the aquatic stage. The use of insecticides is to control larvae and adulticides as outdoor ultra-low volume applications and indoor re‐ sidual spray and more recently impregnated materials. The health department regulates the use of insecticides, and such regulations are revised and adapted over time. Since 1999, the vector control regulations gave preference to the use of pyrethroids, a perme‐ thrin-based formulation to control adult forms. This insecticide was used as the only adulticide in Mexico for more than 10 years. The consequences of this actions have evolved in a widespread and strong resistance to other insecticides, mainly pyrethroids. We include in this revision evidence of resistance reported in *Ae. aegypti* in Mexico.

**Keywords:** *Aedes aegypti*, pyrethroids, kdr, V1016I, F1534C, Mexico

## **1. Introduction**

*Aedes aegypti* is the primary urban vector of the viruses causing dengue, Chikungunya, and yellow fever [1–4]. The females are primarily endophagic (feeds indoors) and endophilic (lives indoors) day-biting vectors that feed preferentially on humans [5–7]. They take multiple blood meals before producing an egg batch [8,9], creating the potential for a single infectious female to transmit the virus to more than one person. The females lay their eggs

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in containers found in the peridomestic environment, and that is where the immature larvae and pupae develop [10,11]. *Ae. aegypti* is ubiquitous in populated areas of Mexico up to ~1,500 m above sea level [12]. *Aedes albopictus*, which is the primary vector of dengue and Chikungunya viruses, is ubiquitous in rural settings [13–15]. This human biter was introduced into Texas in the 1980s and has spread widely in northern and central Mexi‐ co, and the far southern part of the country [16–18].

Urban environments have favored the presence and abundance of *Ae. aegypti* in 30 of 32 states of Mexico (with exception of Tlaxcala and the Federal District) [19–21], and conse‐ quently, they have caused the endemic transmission of dengue and more recently, in 2014, of Chikungunya [22].
