Detection of Leptospiral DNA in the Urine of Donkeys on the Caribbean Island of Saint Kitts.

Bernard Grevemeyer,Arve Willingham,Brittney Beigel,Ashutosh Verma,Ellen Cho,Michel Vandenplas

doi:10.3390/vetsci4010002

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a global zoonosis caused by pathogenic spirochetes classified within the genus Leptospira. Leptospires live in the proximal renal tubules of reservoir or chronic carrier animals, and are shed in the urine. Naïve animals acquire infection either when they come in direct contact with a reservoir or infected animals or by exposure to environmental surface water or soil that is contaminated with their urine. In this study, urine samples from a herd of donkeys on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts were screened using a TaqMan-based real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) targeting a pathogen-specific leptospiral gene, lipl32. Out of 124 clinically normal donkeys, 22 (18%) tested positive for leptospiral DNA in their urine. Water samples from two water troughs used by the donkeys were also tested, but were found to be free from leptospiral contamination. Detection of leptospiral DNA in the urine of clinically healthy donkeys may point to a role that these animals play in the maintenance of the bacteria on St. Kitts.

Highlights

Leptospirosis is an emerging disease in the United States, and a neglected disease in the rest of the world
The quantitative PCR used in this study targeted lipl32, which is a highly-conserved gene among been shown to be a robust assay for the detection of leptospiral DNA in clinical samples, and has high pathogenic serovars encoding a 32 kDa major leptospiral membrane protein
Previously been shown to be a robust assay for the detection of leptospiral DNA in clinical samples, All were castrated males, and physical exams carried out on all donkeys were within and124 hasdonkeys high sensitivity and specificity

Summary

Introduction

Leptospirosis is an emerging disease in the United States, and a neglected disease in the rest of the world. Pathogenic leptospires live in the proximal renal tubules of reservoir animals and are shed in their urine, contaminating surface water. 2017, 4, 2 routinely exposed to open water sources or animals such as veterinarians, farmers, abattoir workers, meat inspectors, and rodent control workers. Sci. 2017, 4, 2 routinely exposed to open water sources or animals such as veterinarians, farmers, abattoir workers, meat inspectors, and rodent control workers Natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes may be accompanied leptospirosis outbreaks contaminated water [4]. We fatal cases canine leptospirosis and at infection and involvement of multiple species, wedescribed tested urine from of clinically normal donkeys renal carriage by a pig that was destined for human consumption [7]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing leptospiral urinary shedding in Equidae from any Caribbean country

Collection of Samples

DNA Extraction

Results cyclesand of 95Discussion

Conclusions