Detection of Leptospira species in bat cadavers, Czech and Slovak Republics

ABSTRACT

Kidney samples from 300 bat cadavers from the Czech and Slovak Republics were tested for Leptospira DNA using PCR and sequencing of three genes (lipL32, flab, and 16S ribosomal RNA). Overall detection rate was 4.7% and two bat species (Myotis myotis and Nyctalus noctula) were PCR-positive for at least one gene. Detected Leptospira sequences were similar to L. interrogans and L. borgpetersenii, and included a potentially novel species related to L. weilii.

KEYWORDS:

• Bats
• Central Europe
• emerging zoonoses
• Leptospira
• Myotis
• Nyctalus

Acknowledgements

We also thank to wildlife rescuers and rehabilitators from centres in Plzeň and Jinačovice, Dagmar Zieglerova from the Czech Union for Nature Conservation; Nyctalus Praha and Jiri Safar from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic for providing bat cadavers.

Authorship

VS, PS and IR conceived and designed the study; JZ, TB, JP collected material; PS, MN, JS, LD, RK, SŠ, JM and VS performed the laboratory analyses; JZ, JP, VS, PS, RK, CM, and IR analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript, to which all authors contributed with critical comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data and materials availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions are present in the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The study was financially supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (No. NU21-05-00143) and FVHE/Pikula/ITA2021. The funders had no role in the study design, data analysis, and decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.