Detection of the 1016Gly and 989Pro Knockdown Resistance Mutations in Florida, USA Aedes aegypti

<i>Aedes aegypti</i> is a major arboviral disease vector and is therefore a critical target for control by public health programs. Early eradication efforts have shown that <i>Ae. aegypti</i> can rapidly build insecticide resistance, and, now, resistance to pyrethroids, the major class of adulticides used for operational control, is common in many populations. A major contributor to this resistance is a group of knockdown resistance (<i>kdr</i>) SNPs that normally exist in distinct ensembles in the Western Hemisphere and the Indopacific with little known mixing. In this study, we detected, and confirmed, using multiple methods, the Indopacific <i>kdr</i> SNPs, both V1016G and S989P, in three recent collections from Osceola County, Florida. This represents a large expansion of the geographic range of the Indopacific <i>kdr</i> SNPs. We consider the implications of this finding on future insecticide resistance surveillance studies, including assessing the ability of our current screening tools to detect these SNPs. We find that the presence of the Indopacific SNPs requires the modification of existing resistance screening protocols and requires further work to understand the operational implications for mosquito control.