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Co-Radiation of <i>Leptospira</i> and Tenrecidae (Afrotheria) on Madagascar
oleh: Yann Gomard, Steven M. Goodman, Voahangy Soarimalala, Magali Turpin, Guenaëlle Lenclume, Marion Ah-Vane, Christopher D. Golden, Pablo Tortosa
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2022-08-01 |
Deskripsi
Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonosis caused by pathogenic <i>Leptospira</i> that are maintained in the kidney lumen of infected animals acting as reservoirs and contaminating the environment via infected urine. The investigation of leptospirosis through a <i>One Health</i> framework has been stimulated by notable genetic diversity of pathogenic <i>Leptospira</i> combined with a high infection prevalence in certain animal reservoirs. Studies of Madagascar’s native mammal fauna have revealed a diversity of <i>Leptospira</i> with high levels of host-specificity. Native rodents, tenrecids, and bats shelter several distinct lineages and species of <i>Leptospira</i>, some of which have also been detected in acute human cases. Specifically, <i>L. mayottensis</i>, first discovered in humans on Mayotte, an island neighboring Madagascar, was subsequently identified in a few species of tenrecids on the latter island, which comprise an endemic family of small mammals. Distinct <i>L. mayottensis</i> lineages were identified in shrew tenrecs (<i>Microgale cowani</i> and <i>Nesogale dobsoni</i>) on Madagascar, and later in an introduced population of spiny tenrecs (<i>Tenrec ecaudatus</i>) on Mayotte. These findings suggest that <i>L. mayottensis</i> (i) has co-radiated with tenrecids on Madagascar, and (ii) has recently emerged in human populations on Mayotte following the introduction of <i>T. ecaudatus</i> from Madagascar. Hitherto, <i>L. mayottensis</i> has not been detected in spiny tenrecs on Madagascar. In the present study, we broaden the investigation of Malagasy tenrecids and test the emergence of <i>L. mayottensis</i> in humans as a result of the introduction of <i>T. ecaudatus</i> on Mayotte. We screened by PCR 55 tenrecid samples from Madagascar, including kidney tissues from 24 individual <i>T. ecaudatus</i>. We describe the presence of <i>L. mayottensis</i> in Malagasy <i>T. ecaudatus</i> in agreement with the aforementioned hypothesis, as well as in <i>M. thomasi</i>, a tenrecid species that has not been explored thus far for <i>Leptospira</i> carriage.