Leptospirosis in animals and human contacts in Egypt: broad range surveillance

Abstract

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a re-emerging zoonotic disease of humans and animals worldwide. The disease is caused by pathogenic species of the genus Leptospira. These organisms are maintained in nature via chronic renal infection of carrier animals, which excrete the organisms in their urine. Humans become infected through direct or indirect exposure to infected animals and their urine or through contact with contaminated water and soil. This study was conducted to investigate Leptospira infections as a re-emerging zoonosis that has been neglected in Egypt. Methods: Samples from 1,250 animals (270 rats, 168 dogs, 625 cows, 26 buffaloes, 99 sheep, 14 horses, 26 donkeys and 22 camels), 175 human contacts and 45 water sources were collected from different governorates in Egypt. The samples were collected from different body sites and prepared for culture, PCR and the microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Results: The isolation rates of Leptospira serovars were 6.9%, 11.3% and 1.1% for rats, dogs and cows, respectively, whereas the PCR results revealed respective detection rates of 24%, 11.3% and 1.1% for rats, dogs and cows. Neither the other examined animal species nor humans yielded positive results via these two techniques. Only six Leptospira serovars (Icterohaemorrhagiae, Pomona, Canicola, Grippotyphosa, Celledoni and Pyrogenes) could be isolated from rats, dogs and cows. Moreover, the seroprevalence of leptospiral antibodies among the examined humans determined using MAT was 49.7%. Conclusions: The obtained results revealed that rats, dogs and cows were the most important animal reservoirs for leptospirosis in Egypt, and the high seroprevalence among human contacts highlights the public health implications of this neglected zoonosis.

High frequency of seropositivity ofLeptospirain cattle in North Tunisia

“…; Samir et al . ). The seroprevalences with MAT in Northern Morocco and Middle Atlas were 5 (5/99) and 1% (1/98) in goats and sheep with abortion history respectively (Benkirane et al .…”

The epidemiology, characteristics and outbreaks of human leptospirosis and the association with animals in Taiwan, 2007–2014: A nationwide database study

“…Although dogs (Calderon, Rodriguez, Mattar, & Arrieta, ; Flores et al, ; Hsu, Liu, Liu, Pan, & Lin, ; Pinto, Libonati, & Lilenbaum, ; Samir, Soliman, El‐Hariri, Abdel‐Moein, & Hatem, ; Tagliabue et al, ), cats (Chan et al, ), rats (Fresh, Tsai, Lai, & Chang, ; Samir et al, ; Tagliabue et al, ), pigs (Calderon et al, ; Chadsuthi et al, ; Flores et al, ; Lee et al, ; Pinto et al, ; Tagliabue et al, ), cattle (Chadsuthi et al, ; Flores et al, ; Samir et al, ; Tagliabue et al, ) and goats (Flores et al, ; Samir et al, ; Tagliabue et al, ) could be the potential animal source of human LS, only the percentages of pig and rat exposure were significantly higher in confirmed LS cases than those in non‐confirmed LS cases in the current study (Table ). In a study from north‐eastern Thailand, the high incidence of LS was due to agriculture and animal farming rather than rainfall and flood events (Suwanpakdee et al, ).…”

A serological survey of agents causing leptospirosis and toxoplasmosis in Rattus rattus in the city of Umuarama, northwest Paraná, Brazil

“…This serovar is now routinely included in serological assays for infection with Leptospira for several animal species, and recent studies have shown its prevalence in goats and sheep (HIGINO; AZEVEDO, 2014), dogs (FONZAR;LANGONI, 2012;MASCOLLI et al, 2016;SAMIR et al, 2015), and humans (FONZAR; LANGONI, 2012;SAMIR et al, 2015;BRASIL, 2010b).…”