First Isolation of Leptospira borgpetersenii from Fetuses of Wild Boars (Sus scrofa)

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonose and is endemic in many countries. This zoonosisis maintained in nature by chronic renal infection of carrier animals, being rodents andother small mammals the most important reservoirs. Also, significant sources of humaninfection are domestic animals, such as livestock and dogs. The wild boar (Sus scrofa)is an introduced species from Europe which is widespread in America and particularlyin the Center and South of Argentina. This species is highly valued by hunters in theregion and their meat is consumed more often. In many countries of the world (Europe,USA and Australia) studies of seroprevalence have been carried out, the seroreactivitydoes not mean that the wild boar has clinical symptoms of leptospirosis or that wildboars are maintenance host of this pathogen. However, these animals have been incontact to leptospiras in their environment in the past. This study has the objective tomolecularly genotype the pathogenic Leptospira sp. isolated strain obtained fromfetuses of wild boars from Patagonia Argentina. Four fetuses were aborted from a wildboar (Sus scrofa) in Patagonia, the southern region of Argentina. Necropsy wasperformed of the 4 fetuses and samples of kidneys, liver, spleen and lung werecultivated in Fletcher and EMJH mediums. Also, samples of liver, spleen, lung andkidney of fetuses were processed and analyzed by direct immunofluorescence.Multiple Locus Variable number tandem repeats Analysis (MLVA) was used tocharacterize the isolated strain. The genetic profile of the isolated pathogenicLeptospira sp. strain was identical to the profile of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovarCastellonis Castellon 3, serogroup Ballum. To the best of our knowledge this is the firstisolation of Leptospira spp. from a wild boar fetus.