New vaccine strategies are needed for the prevention of leptospirosis, a widespread human and animal disease caused by pathogenic leptospires. Our previous work determined that a protein leptospiral extract conferred cross-protection in a gerbil model of leptospirosis. The 31- to 34-kDa protein fraction of Leptospira interrogans serovar autumnalis was shown sufficient for this purpose. In the p...

Leptospirosis is a re-emerging tropical infectious disease [1], is an important zooanthroponotic disease spread-worldwide [2]. The spirochetes of the genus Leptospira is responsible of human and animal leptospirosis characterized as mild febrile illness to severe multiorgan failure, especially pulmonary hemorrhage and renal failure [3]. Pathogenic leptospires are highly motile and invasive spir...

In the present study PCR was applied to detect leptospires in human urine. Several approaches for sample processing were evaluated to optimize the detection of leptospires in urine mixed with this bacterium. Furthermore, some changes in the composition of the reaction mix were studied. No amplification was observed in acidic urine, therefore neutralization of the sample immediately after collec...

Studies on virulence of leptospires would probably be most fruitful if the leptospires could be grown in chemically defined media. Nonpathogenic leptospires found inwater, Leptospira biflexa, have been described in Bergey's Manual, and in the 1962 minutes of the taxonomic subcommittee on Leptospira of the International Committee on Bacteriological Nomenclature, as being saprophytic and able to ...

Pathogenic Leptospira spp. are the etiological agents of leptospirosis, an important disease of both humans and animals. In urban settings, L. interrogans serovars are the predominant cause of disease in humans. The purpose of this study was to characterize a novel Leptospira isolate recovered from an abandoned swimming pool. Molecular characterization through sequencing of the rpoB gene reveal...

Miller, Norman G. (University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha) and Richard B. Wilson. In vivo and in vitro observations of Leptospira pomona by electron microscopy. J. Bacteriol. 84:569-576. 1962.-Leptospira pomona 3341 was observed by electron microscopy, after the preparation of thin sections from culture material and from infected hamster tissue. The external membrane of low electron ...

The susceptibility of Leptospira interrogans serovar icterohaemorrhagiae strain Verdun to selected antibiotics used in medical practice (ampicillin, doxycycline, and ofloxacin) was evaluated in a Syrian hamster model, to determine the efficacy of these antibiotics during the course of the disease. A quantitative PCR assay was used to monitor the density of leptospires in blood and in target org...

Leptospires are spirochetes that may be free-living saprophytes found in freshwater or may cause acute or chronic infection of animals. The family Leptospiraceae comprises three genera: Leptospira Leptospira Leptonema Leptonema, and Turneriella Turneriella. Within the genus Leptospira, three clades can be distinguished, of pathogens, nonpathogens, and an intermediate group. Leptospires are furt...

INTRODUCTION Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp.  Leptospirosis is maintained in an environment due to chronic kidney infection of a wide variety of domestic, peridomestic and wild reservoir mammals. In this study the role of pigs in maintenance of leptospires on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts was investigated. METHODOLOGY The condemned kidneys of 60 pi...

Globally Leptospirosis is the most important public health concern. It is a bacterial zoonosis, caused by pathogenic spirochete which belongs to the genus Leptospira, which affects almost all the mammals including humans. 1 It is cosmoplotialy distributed and exists in diverse ecological habitats which includes from water to soil and in the tissues of various mammalians and its prevalence is hi...