Abstract
Leptospirosis has been widely reported in insular environments
worldwide, characterizing a major public health threat. Although low
genetic biodiversity is expected in these regions, the introduction of
domestic and synanthropic mammals may contribute to the wider diversity
leptospiral strains in insular settings. This study proposes a
large-scale investigation of Leptospira infection in animals from
Fernando de Noronha archipelago, Brazil. A total of 1,265 blood samples
from domestic (n=682), synanthropic (n=133) and wild (n=450) animals
were collected between 2007 and 2014, totaling 12 species. The presence
of anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies was investigated by the Microscopic
Agglutination Test (MAT) and kidney samples from synanthropic rodents
were collected for the isolation of Leptospira spp. The
leptospires recovered were further characterized by MAT with polyclonal
antibodies, whole genome sequencing and Multilocus Sequence Typing
(MLST). The MAT results revealed the presence of agglutinins in 90
samples (7.1%), and the most frequently found serogroup was
Icterohaemorrhagiae (n=57) in practically all species included. Viable
leptospires were recovered from one brown rat, and characterization
revealed that the isolate belongs to L. interrogans serogroup
Pyrogenes. This study stands as the most comprehensive investigation of
Leptospira spp. infection in Fernando de Noronha archipelago,
also providing the characterization of the first leptospiral strain ever
isolated from an insular setting in Brazil. The results suggest that
synanthropic rodents play a major role in the transmission of
leptospirosis among wildlife and domestic species in the archipelago.