First studies showing high temephos resistance in Anopheles labranchiae (Diptera: Culicidae) from Tunisia

BACKGROUND: Despite the public health importance of Anopheles (An.) labranchiae, their resistance status to temephos insecticide has not, to our knowledge, been explored. OBJECTIVES: The present study was carried out to determine the temephos resistance status of field populations of An. labranchiae from Tunisia. METHODS: Six field populations of An. labranchiae were collected as larvae from breeding sites of Northern and Central Tunisia. All the tests were carried out according to the WHO method. RESULTS: Results reported that the majority of field populations showed low and medium resistance ratios (6.2<RR50< 29.8) to temephos insecticide tested except for the strain # 1 which had interestingly a very high resistance with RR50 of 624 never detected in Tunisia and North Africa even on other species of mosquitoes CONCLUSION: The resistance ratios of this species were higher than recorded in other countries. Biochemical and molecular studies would be of great importance to identify the mechanisms involved in the recorded resistance to temephos.