INIBIOLP   05426
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOQUIMICAS DE LA PLATA "PROF. DR. RODOLFO R. BRENNER"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
A fungal biopesticide is new effective tool against Chagas disease vectors
Autor/es:
JUÁREZ M PATRICIA
Reunión:
Simposio; Keystone Symposia Global Health Series: Fungal Pathogens: From Basic Biology to Drug Discovery.; 2012
Institución organizadora:
Keystone Symposia
Resumen:
Chagas disease also known as American trypanosomiasis, is the most relevant parasitic endemic infection in the Americas, with 16 - 18 million people infected. Rural relocation into urban areas, together with international migration, have helped spread the disease into new areas within affected countries, and worldwide. Triatomine kissing bugs (Hemiptera, Reduviidae) mediate the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of the disease. Current control strategies against the insect vector are based on chemical insecticide spraying; however, implementing new control methods is crucial due to the emergence of growing number of pyrethroid-resistant bug populations in the Gran Chaco region of South America. The participation of Triatoma infestans cuticle in insecticide resistance mechanism, together with the ability of entomopathogenic fungi to effectively breach the insect cuticle both of pyrethroid-susceptible and resistant T. infestans bugs was shown previously in this laboratory [1]. An attract-and-kill trap strategy was developed and tested both in laboratory and field assays; the attraction cues used were extracts of the insect cuticle lipids (contact aggregation pheromone [2]). Here we will discuss the potential of a fungal biopesticide by modeling the insect population dynamics after exposure to the fungus.  We tested the virulence and residual activity of the biopesticide, together with the contribution of the fungal autodissemination events to actual infection of bugs. The Beauveria bassiana-based formulation was highly virulent against all T. infestans stages and maintained its insecticide capability at least for 5 months under natural ambient conditions; the horizontal transmission of conidia was also shown to be associated to bug density, significantly contributing to the overall insect population infection. These results showed a high efficacy of this low cost, low tech, ecologically friendly methodology useful as new strategy for insecticide resistance management.        [1] Pedrini N. et al., 2009. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 3(5): e434      [2] Lorenzo F. et al., 2009. Parasites & Vectors 2:8