Leptospira interrogans in bats in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil: epidemiologic aspects and phylogeny

Abstract

Leptospirosis is an infectious disease caused by Leptospira spp. and affects animals and humans. Reports of leptospirosis in bats have increased and prompted epidemiological research in Brazil. This study aimed to perform a molecular and epidemiological investigation of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in bat kidneys. The total DNA was extracted from 102 kidney samples from chiropterous of different species and cities in Rio Grande do Sul State (RS), Brazil. The polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify a fragment corresponding to lipL32 gene, which is only present in pathogenic Leptospira spp. lipL32 gene was detected in 22.5% (23/102) of the bat kidney tissues. Phylogenetic analysis showed that L. interrogans is circulating in bats in RS. Most species of the bats collected were insectivores. Pathogenic Leptospira spp. detection in bats demonstrated that these animals participate in the infection chain of leptospirosis and, therefore, may play as reservoirs and disseminators of this microorganism. Thus, it is important to monitor infectious agents, especially with zoonotic potential in bats. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42770-022-00838-7.

Detección de Leptospira spp. en murciélagos de la península de Yucatán, México

“…A pesar de todos estos hallazgos, la intervención de los murciélagos en la epidemiología de Leptospira spp. no está del todo entendida [27]; no obstante, numerosos estudios los clasifican como reservorios de varias especies patógenas debido a que se ha demostrado que sufren de infecciones crónicas en el riñón [28] y que son capaces de excretar bacterias viables en su orina [29], contaminando medios como suelo y fuentes de agua, que tienen contacto con hospedadores susceptibles (incluyendo los humanos y animales domésticos), manteniendo de esta manera el ciclo de transmisión [30]. En este sentido, se sabe que varias especies patógenas de Leptospira son capaces de infectar a varios animales domésticos y de compañía, entre ellos cerdos (Sus scrofa domesticus), vacas (Bos taurus), caballos (Eqqus caballus), ovejas (Ovis aries), cabras (Capra hircus), perros (Canis lupus familiaris) y gatos (Felis catus), los cuales, al ser susceptibles a la infección, pueden desarrollar la enfermedad [2].…”

“…[33,41]. Por lo tanto, se necesitan más investigaciones para determinar los factores y las condiciones que generan la interacción entre murciélagos de distintos gremios tróficos que permite la transmisión del género Leptospira [29]. Dentro de los limitantes de este estudio puede mencionarse la falta de información sobre las especies de Leptospira en los murciélagos infectados.…”

Genetic diversity of P1/pathogenic Leptospira species hosted by bats worldwide

“…among bats in other regions has also been reported (Esteves et al., 2022). However, in these studies other molecular targets besides 16S rRNA gene were used, such as LipL32 (Ulsenheimer et al., 2022), flaB (Saraullo et al., 2021), secY (Javati et al., 2022), rpoB (Bevans et al., 2020), and glmU (McCutchan et al., 2023). The importance of these molecular markers to study the genetic diversity of Leptospira spp.…”

Bat-Associated Pathogenic Leptospira spp. from Forest Fragments in Southwestern Brazilian Amazonia

“…Currently, more than 107 species of bats infected with Leptospira have been reported on different continents [6]. In Brazil, several studies have reported the presence of bats infected with Leptospira [8][9][10][11], but few performed molecular diagnosis and genetic characterization based on DNA sequencing.…”