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Molecular and Serological Prevalence of <i>Leptospira</i> spp. in Feral Pigs (<i>Sus scrofa</i>) and their Habitats in Alabama, USA
oleh: Anil Poudel, Md Monirul Hoque, Steven Madere, Sara Bolds, Stuart Price, Subarna Barua, Folasade Adekanmbi, Anwar Kalalah, Steven Kitchens, Vienna Brown, Chengming Wang, B. Graeme Lockaby
| Format: | Article |
|---|---|
| Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2020-10-01 |
Deskripsi
Leptospirosis is a widespread zoonosis and has been recognized as a re-emerging infectious disease in humans and a variety of wild and domestic animal species. In order to understand the prevalence and diversity of <i>Leptospira</i> spp. in feral pig populations of Alabama, we trapped 315 feral pigs in Bullock County east-central Alabama, and collected 97 environmental samples from riparian areas in Bullock County and Macon County east-central Alabama. Two previously published PCRs followed by DNA sequencing and BLASTn were performed to identify pathogenic <i>Leptospira</i> species in the kidney of feral pigs (3.2%, 10/315) as well as environmental samples collected from the habitats of feral pigs (2.1%, 2/97), but not in the whole blood samples (n = 276) or spleen (n = 51). An ELISA determined that 44.2% of serum samples (122/276) were antibody-positive for <i>Leptospira</i>. The identification of two pathogenic <i>Leptospira</i> species from environmental samples and the high sero-positivity in feral pigs suggests potential pathogen shedding from feral pigs to environments, and to humans and domestic animals. In order to better understand the risk to human health associated with feral swine presence, further studies are warranted to explore the interrelationship between <i>Leptospira</i> spp. shedding in the urine of feral pigs and bacterial culture to explore pathogenicity. Multi-locus sequencing typing (MLST) and microscopic agglutination tests (MAT) should be performed in future studies to make a definite determination of pathogenic <i>Leptospira</i> in feral pigs in Alabama.