Leptospirosis is endemic in Malaysia with Leptospira species extensively isolated from domestic and wild animals. Rats were found to be the principal maintenance hosts followed by cattle, pigs, and dogs. The objectives of this study were to isolate and identify Leptospira serovars circulating among swine from three different farms and also from stray dogs and cats from Klang valley, Selangor, Malaysia. Urine and kidney samples collected from 150 stray dogs, 50 cats and 81 swine were inoculated into semi-solid Ellinghausen McCullough Johnson and Harris (EMJH) media supplemented with additional 5-Fluorouracil. Dark field microscopy revealed only one positive culture of Leptospira from dog and swine samples, but all cat samples were negative. The PCR technique using published primers detected 11 positives in urine samples of dogs and 5 positives from swine. The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) confirmed the presence of two serovars in both dog and swine populations namely, L. interrogans serovar Canicola and L. interrogans serovar Pomona (MAT > 100), with Not I-PFGE analyses separating these two serovars into distinct profiles. Despite the low prevalence in stray dogs, the latter may play an important role in the contamination of the environment. Swine can also pose a potential risk of infection to humans and other domestic animals, especially those living close to swine farms. Thus improving hygiene and eradication of rodents in swine farms are likely to reduce the risk of infection.

Serological and molecular identification of Leptospira spp. in swine and stray dogs from Malaysia.

Leptospirosis is a globally important zoonotic disease caused by spirochetes
from the genus Leptospira. Transmission to humans occurs either directly from
exposure to contaminated urine or infected tissues, or indirectly via contact with
contaminated soil or water. In Malaysia, leptospirosis is an important emerging zoonotic
disease with dramatic increase of reported cases over the last decade. However, there is
a paucity of data on the epidemiology and genetic characteristics of Leptopsira in
Malaysia. The first objective of this study was to provide an epidemiological description
of human leptospirosis cases over a 9-year period (2004–2012) and disease relationship
with meteorological, geographical, and demographical information. An upward trend of
leptospirosis cases were reported between 2004 to 2012 with a total of 12,325 cases
recorded. Three hundred thirty-eight deaths were reported with an overall case fatality
rate of 2.74%, with higher incidence in males (9696; 78.7%) compared with female
patients (2629; 21.3%). The average incidence was highest amongst Malays (10.97 per
100,000 population), followed by Indians (7.95 per 100,000 population). Stratification
according to geographical distribution showed that the state of Malacca recorded the
highest disease incidence average (11.12 per 100,000 population) followed by Pahang
(10.08 per 100,000 population). In view of the recent rise in reported human cases, the
next aim was to isolate and characterize Leptospira species from the environment (water
and soils), and host reservoirs (rat, dog, cat, swine) from selected sites in different States
in Malaysia. Positive isolates were obtained from urine and kidney samples of 59/167
rats, 11/50 dogs and 5/81 swine. Among 151 environmental samples collected from
different sites, 35 samples (28 water, 7 soil) were positive with 8 (7 water, 1 soil) pure
culture samples. Microscopic agglutination test (MAT) identified 4 Leptospira spp.
serogroups (Javanica, Bataviae, Pomona and Canicola) in the zoonotic samples, while
environmental samples were unidentified. Molecular characterization by PFGE showed a high diversity among the environmental isolates (8 profiles), while only 5 different
patterns were generated among zoonotic and clinical isolates. RAPD-PCR using primer
pairs B11 and B12 subtyped 71 isolates into 32 RAPD profiles. A Multilocus sequence
typing (MLST) using 7 seven house-keeping loci generated a phylogenity tree with 7
different MLST type (STs) among the 63 isolates, however no environmental strains
were typed using this scheme. Antimicrobial susceptibilty analysis showed all 65
Leptospira spp. isolated from humans (n = 1), reservoir animals (rat, n = 60; dog, n = 1;
swine, n = 1) and the environment (n = 2) were resistant to trimethoprim,
chloramphenicol and sulfomethaxazole. Doxycycline, ampicillin and penicillin G were
only effective against the clinical and zoonotic isolates. Finally, multiplex PCR (mPCR)
was developed and proved to be a promising tool for the rapid early detection and
differentiation of leptospirosis from various specimens using two primer sets, LG1/LG2
for genus confirmation, which targeted the 16SrRNA gene and species identification
and pathogenicty determination using LP1/LP2 primers which targeted ligB gene.
These results highlight the need for close partnerships between scientists, clinicians,
veterinarians and public health officers in order to reduce the disease burden.

Epidemiology of human leptospirosis and molecular characterization of Leptospira spp. isolated from the environment and animal hosts in Peninsular Malaysia / Benacer Douadi

Canine leptospirosis is a potentially fatal bacterial disease of global importance resulting in acute kidney injury in most affected dogs, while many will have hepatic and some hemorrhagic and pulmonary involvement. Infecting Serovars and seroprevalence vary between geographic regions and despite an abundance of literature there are knowledge gaps due to differences in study design and limitations in available diagnostic tests. While new diagnostic tests including point-of-care tests and molecular methods are being developed, a combination of the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) (acute and convalescent titers) and PCR in blood and urine are recommended. The mainstay of prevention is risk mitigation tailored to different geographic regions taking epidemiological data (including reservoir hosts) into account. Vaccination is inconsistent in preventing disease and is influenced by the infecting Serovar(s) and valency of the vaccine. 

Canine Leptospirosis – Global Distribution, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease of worldwide importance. Besides rodents, dogs have also been implicated as a source of infection to humans. Samples of urine and blood from 142 stray dogs were examined for leptospirosis by serological tests and bacterial cultures. Of these, 83% (118/142) and 33% (471142) of the serum samples were positive by ELISA-IgM/IgG and the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) respectively. No leptospiral isolates were obtained on culture. Leptospira interrogans serovar pomona was found to be the most predominant serovar in the dogs with an infection rate of 68% at MAT titres of ~ 100. Urine and serum samples were randomly selected for detection and identification of leptospires by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and low-stringency PCR assay respectively. All seropositive samples selected were positive by PCR assay. One urine sample showed the presence of leptospires based on PCR assay.

Leptospiral infections in stray dogs in Malaysia

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

T. Phoumoona

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Leptospiral infections in stray dogs in Malaysia