Pathogenic Leptospira spp. in Bats, Madagascar and Union of the Comoros

Discovery of a novel human picornavirus in a stool sample from a pediatric patient presenting with fever of unknown origin. are genetically diverse and cause common enteric infections in South Asian children.van de Ven E, et al. Saffold virus, a human Theiler's-like cardiovirus, is ubiquitous and causes infection early in life. New algorithms and methods to estimate maximum-likelihood phylogenies: assessing the performance of PhyML 3.0. Pond SL. Datamonkey 2010: a suite of phylogenetic analysis tools for evolutionary biology. Pathogenic Leptospira spp. in Bats, Madagascar and Union of the Comoros To the Editor: Leptospirosis is a zoonosis of global distribution; incidence rates are particularly high in tropical areas (1). Leptospirosis is a major public health problem on islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, particularly La Réunion, Mayotte, and the Seychelles (where incidence rates are among the highest in the world) (1). In contrast, no human case has been reported on the nearby islands of Madagascar and Union of the Comoros. However, the recent demonstration of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in small mammals introduced to Madagascar suggests possible transmission from free-living animals to humans (2). In addition to the fact that incidence rates vary among humans, clinical bacterial isolates from different islands belong to different serogroups and serovars and show diverse molecular features (3,4). This diversity might be correlated with that of the reservoir hosts; the islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean are a hot spot of biodiversity with extraordinary levels of vertebrate endemism. Most studies investigating wild-animal reservoirs of Leptospira spp. on the islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean have focused on small mammals that had been introduced to the islands (2,5), although bats infected with pathogenic Leptospira spp. have been identifi ed in other regions (6). Whether bats are a reservoir of Leptospira spp. on these islands remains unknown. Therefore, we looked for this bacterium in bats from Madagascar and Union of the Comoros and characterized associated genetic diversity. As part of an ongoing program aimed at identifying viral and bacterial infectious agents in island wild fauna, 129 insectivorous and frugivorous bats were tested for Leptospira spp. The bats belonged to 12 species: 9 from Madagascar (Mormopterus jugularis, Otomops madagascariensis, Triaenops fur-culus, T. menamena, Miniopterus gleni, Miniopterus griffi thsi, Miniopterus mahafaliensis, Myotis goudoti, Hypsugo anchietae) and 3 from Union of the Comoros (Rousettus obliviosus, Chaerephon pusillus, Miniopterus griveaudi). Bats were captured in mist nets or harp traps at 8 sites in …