Identification of cattle, buffaloes and rodents as reservoir animals of Leptospira in the District of Gampaha, Sri Lanka.
BACKGROUND
Leptospirosis is an important emerging infectious disease in Sri Lanka. Rats are the most important reservoir of Leptospira but domestic and wild mammals may also act as important maintenance or accidental hosts. In Sri Lanka, knowledge of reservoir animals of leptospires is poor. The objective of this study was to identify potential reservoir animals of Leptospira in the District of Gampaha, Sri Lanka.


RESULTS
Blood and kidney samples were collected from 38 rodents and mid-stream urine samples were randomly collected from 45 cattle and five buffaloes in the District of Gampaha. Kidney and urine samples were tested by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serum samples were tested by the microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Of the 38 rodent kidney samples, 11% (4/38) were positive by real-time PCR. The prevalence of leptospiral carriage was 11% (3/26) and 8% (1/12) in female and male rodents, respectively. Three rodent serum samples were positive by MAT. Of the 50 cattle/buffalo urine samples tested, 10% (5/50) were positive by real-time PCR. The prevalence of leptospiral carriage was 9% (4/45) and 20% (1/5) in cattle and buffaloes, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of PCR and MAT showed that Leptospira were present in a significant proportion of the rodents and farm animals tested in this study and suggest that these (semi-) domestic animals form an infection reservoir for Leptospira. Therefore, there is a potential zoonotic risk to public health, most notably to farmers in this area.
Molecular Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, P.O. Box 06, Ragama, Sri Lanka.|Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka.
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Denipitiya
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka.
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Chandrasekharan
Molecular Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, P.O. Box 06, Ragama, Sri Lanka.
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Abeyewickreme
WHO/FAO/OIE Collaborating Centre on Leptospirosis, KIT Biomedical Research, Meibergdreef 39, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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Hartskeerl
Molecular Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, P.O. Box 06, Ragama, Sri Lanka. menakaha@yahoo.com.
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Hapugoda
D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000379:methods; D000820:Animal Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000652:urine; D000818:Animals; D002020:Buffaloes; D002417:Cattle; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D007668:Kidney / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D007919:Leptospira / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D051381:Rats; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology
D004269:DNA, Bacterial
Leptospirosis; Microscopic agglutination test (MAT); Real-time PCR; Reservoir animals