Detection of Leptospira in Urban Swedish Rats: Pest Control Interventions as a Promising Source of Rats Used for Surveillance

Sammanfattning

Rat carcasses obtained from pest control interventions can potentially be used for an efficient surveillance of zoonotic diseases such as leptospirosis. To evaluate the performance of different laboratory methods for detection of pathogenic Leptospira spp., heart and kidney samples from wild Norway rats were analyzed by microscopic agglutination test (MAT, the gold standard), a commercial IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and by an optimized quantitative PCR (secY qPCR, followed by sequencing). We found secY qPCR to be as sensitive as MAT for screening of Leptospira infection in pest control rats and selected secY qPCR for a larger screening of rats from urban and rural areas in central and southern Sweden. We identified secY qPCR positive rats from the cities Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo, which were further confirmed by sequencing.

Nyckelord

Leptospira; Norway rat; zoonosis; qPCR; microscopic agglutination test

Publicerad i

Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases
2019, Volym: 19, nummer: 6, sidor: 414-420
Utgivare: MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC

SLU författare

• Backhans, Annette

  • Institutionen för kliniska vetenskaper, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

UKÄ forskningsämne

Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2017.2262

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/101067