Volume: 55 Issue: 2
Year: 2024, Page: 366-373, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.2.366-373
Received: Oct. 13, 2023 Accepted: Jan. 16, 2024 Published: June 30, 2024
Rodent-borne zoonoses pose great threat to human as well as animal health and productivity. Leptospira is one among the major pathogens harboured by rats and is neglected worldwide leading to their misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. Rapid urbanisation favours exposure of humans and domestic animals to rodent reservoirs, resulting in increased transmission of the bacterium. The present study was conducted to identify the occurrence of Leptospira spp. in rats in Thrissur district, Kerala. A total of 100 peri-domestic rats (66 Rattus norvegicus and 34 R. rattus) were collected during summer and monsoon seasons. This included 50 rats each during summer and monsoon seasons from households rearing animals and paddy fields. Seroprevalence of leptospirosis was determined by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and renal carriage of the organism was determined by isolation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of organism from kidney samples. The MAT of serum samples revealed seroprevalence of 10 per cent in summer and 28 per cent in monsoon. The predominant serovars detected during summer were Australis and Javanica. However, Bataviae and Gryppotyphosa were the predominant serovars during monsoon. There was significant difference in seroprevalence of Leptospira between summer and monsoon seasons. The EMJH semisolid media was inoculated with kidney dissected out from rats and 16 isolates were obtained. The isolates were subjected to PCR targeting 16S rRNA, lipl 21, lipl 32 and lipl 41 genes. A total of five isolates obtained during summer and 11 during monsoon were confirmed to be pathogenic leptospires. The results of the present study show the occurrence of Leptospira spp. in rats and its significant difference during both seasons. This will help to adopt proper interventions for effective prevention and control of the disease in endemic areas like Kerala.
Keywords: Leptospirosis, rat, summer, monsoon, MAT, PCR, isolates
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© 2024 Shilpa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Shilpa, S., Menon, K.V., Sunil, B. Jolly, D. and Gleeja, V.L. 2024. Occurrence of Leptospira spp. in peri-domestic rats of Thrissur, Kerala. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 55(2):366-373
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.2.366-373