CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Chagas disease is an endemic disease affecting ten million people in theAmerican continent. Produced by a parasite transmitted by triatomine insects, themain actions for reducing the incidence of this disease are focused on the controlof insect vectors. This type of control has produced highly effective results withinrural homes, but not in peridomestic areas (kitchens, warehouses, hen houses andother buildings not attached to the houses). The object of the present study was toassess the triatomicidal effect of new spot on formulations developed by ourlaboratory in a semi-rural environment. The active ingredients of the formulationswere β-cypermethrin, pyriproxyfen, or β-cypermethrin + pyriproxyfen. Allformulations were applied to hens and tested in miniature replicas of ruralhouseholds where experimental populations of Triatoma infestans, the main vectorof Chagas disease in Argentina, had been previously released. The experimentalpopulations exposed to formulations containing β-cypermethrin or β-cypermethrin + pyriproxyfen were noticeably reduced compared to non-treated control groups.However, no differences were observed between the effects produced by β-cypermethrin alone and β-cypermethrin + pyriproxyfen. Pyriproxyfen aloneproduced no significant reduction in the experimental populations of T. infestans.These results suggest that spot on application of β-cypermethrin could be a usefulcomplementary tool for controlling triatomine insects in the peridomestic areas ofrural homes.