Abstract
Environmental resistance is an important factor for understanding the epidemiology of leptospirosis. Recently, new Leptospira hosts were identified, including also marine mammals. Moreover, halotolerant Leptospira strain, isolated from the environment and animals, highlighted the capability of this microorganism to persist in the seawater. The aim of this research was to investigate the bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect of salt on Leptospira strains belonging to 16 different serovars. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were verified through the microdilutions method starting from a 20% sodium chloride concentration. MIC values obtained were between 0.3125% and 10% of salt, while MBC values between 0.625% and >20%. Icterohaemorrhagiae (MIC: 0.3125%; MBC: 0.625%) resulted the most inhibited serovar, while the most resistant was Tarassovi (MIC: 10%; MBC: >20%). Interestingly, trends were reported for Pomona (MIC: 1.25%; MBC: >20%) and Bratislava (MIC: 0.625%; MBC: 20%), highlighting low MIC values but high MBC values. This is the first investigation aimed at the in vitro effect of salt on the growth of Leptospira spp. reference strains.
Highlights
Leptospirosis is a re-emerging zoonosis caused by pathogenic Leptospira, bacteria belonging to Spirochetales order [1,2]
minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values resulted between 0.3125% and 10% of salt, while minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values between 0.625% and
In Italy, the isolation of Leptospira biflexa strain Muggia was performed from marine water sampled in the Adriatic Sea, near Trieste [33,34] and Leptospira interrogans serovar Pomona was isolated from a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) stranded in Sardinian coast [15]
Summary
Leptospirosis is a re-emerging zoonosis caused by pathogenic Leptospira, bacteria belonging to Spirochetales order [1,2]. Leptospirosis is worldwide diffused and represents an important public health problem, the bacterium causes from mild to severe infection in both humans and animals [2]. Domestic and wild animals represent Leptospira maintenance or accidental hosts [1,3,4,5,6]. New hosts were identified among domestic and wild animals [9,10], including marine mammals [11,12,13,14,15]. Leptospira infection was evidenced in pinnipeds, such as California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) [12,16,17,18,19,20], Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostiris) [21], Chilean
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