Molecular detection of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in urban rodents from wet markets in northeast Malaysia

• DOI: 10.5455/javar.2022.i593
• Publication Date: 2022-07-09T01:57:30Z
• Authors: Intan Kamaruzaman; Muhamad Mokhtar; Hong Ting; Yong Yuan; Azim Shah; Tan Loong; Nurshahirah Shaha...; Mohd Reduan; Fathin Hamid; Nur Noralidin; Nur Manaf; Che Zalati; Loong Keng; Simon Clegg; Luqman Bakar
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; RV Botanic; D330 Veterinary Public Health; D330 - Veterinary public health; Veterinary medicine; Leptospires; Malaysia; Thomsonian; 610; and eclectic medicine; Rodents; 3. Good health; molecular detection; D320 Animal Health; 03 medical and health sciences; PCR; Wet market; SF600-1100; Original Article; leptospires; malaysia; molecular detection; pcr; rodents; wet market; D320 - Animal health

Objective: This short study describes the occurrence of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in two major wet markets in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia. Materials and Methods: 30 rodents (20 rats and 10 shrews) were caught in 2 wet markets, and a postmortem was performed to extract both kidneys. Molecular diagnosis via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted to detect leptospiral DNA using universal and pathogenic Leptospira primers, respectively. Results: The results showed that 20/28 (72%) rat samples were detected positive for Leptospira spp, and all shrews were negative. Further sequencing analysis identified L. interrogans and L. borgpetersenii as the most frequently Leptospirosis species from kidney samples. Conclusions: The presented study here sheds light on the presence of pathogenic leptospires har¬boring the rat population in both wet markets in Kelantan, which presents a great public health risk to wet market workers and visitors.