LAUSR

BACKGROUND The re-emergence of worldwide concern with arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) draws increasing attention to their mosquito vectors, particularly Aedes aegypti, whose control heavily rely on insecticide use. As a consequence, insecticide resistance is frequent, but the general patterns of occurrence, cross-resistance and prevailing mechanisms remain unrecognized in some areas such as the Neotropical region. Thus, we sought here to recognize the general trends and patterns of insecticide resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean. A systematic literature review (2008-2018) aimed the data-gathering for the region and meta-analyses to address the stated knowledge gap. RESULTS High incidence of insecticide resistance prevails in the mosquito populations of the region. DDT, temephos and deltamethrin were the main insecticides evaluated and the meta-analyses indicate high frequency of DDT-resistant populations (86.7±0.1%), followed by temephos (75.7±0.1%), and deltamethrin (33.0±0.1%). No evidence of cross-resistance was detected among these three insecticides, and the V1016I KDR site mutation does not explain the patterns of deltamethrin resistance in the region. CONCLUSION Resistance to DDT, temephos and deltamethrin are serious and widespread and without cross-resistance among them. Altered target site sensitivity is not the main pyrethroid resistance mechanism, which is likely due to a mix of mechanisms. Therefore, the replacement of deltamethrin and particularly temephos in the region by alternative insecticides is an important resistance management recommendation, but always with compounds out of the cross-resistance spectrum for these populations and insecticides. Nonetheless, the non-recognition of the prevalent resistance mechanisms in the region makes this suggestion more difficult to apply and invites more broad scale studies of resistance mechanisms to fill this knowledge gap and improve the resistance management recommendations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.