Serological and molecular survey of Leptospira spp. infections in wild boars and red foxes from Southeastern France

Vet World Vol.14 April-2021 Article-1

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(4): 825-828

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.825-828

Cédric Roquelo^1,2, Angeli Kodjo³, Jean-Lou Marié^2,4, and Bernard Davoust^2,5,6

1. French Military Health Service, Saint Denis, La Réunion, France.
2. Animal Epidemiology Expert Group, French Military Health Service, Tours, France.
3. Leptospirosis Laboratory, Veterinary Campus of Lyon, VetAgro Sup, Marcy l'Etoile, France.
4. Expertise and Defense Health Strategy Division, French Military Health Service, Paris, France.
5. Aix Marseille Univ, IRD, AP-HM, MEPHI, Marseille, France.
6. IHU Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France.

Background and Aim: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease. Information on the recent prevalence of Leptospira in hunted wild animals is limited, particularly in southeastern France. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess the prevalence and diversity of Leptospira spp. among wild boars (Sus scrofa) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from two military camps in Southeastern France.

Materials and Methods: Serological analyses were performed using microscopic agglutination tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were used to demonstrate Leptospira spp. infection from boar kidney DNA extracts.

Results: According to the species, the positive sera were obtained from 18% of 358 boars and 6 % of 64 foxes tested. The prevalence rate is significantly higher (p=0.02) in boars than in foxes. In wild boar, Australis represents the most recorded serogroup (15.9%), followed by Sejroe (2.8%) and icterohaemorhagiae (2.8%). In red fox, icterohaemorhagiae represents the most recorded serogroup (6.25%), followed by Sejroe (1.57%) and Hebdomadis (1.57%). PCR-based detection of Leptospira DNA was positive in 6/62 (9.6%) of the wild boars tested.

Conclusion: The results of this study confirmed the importance of wild boar in the epidemiology of leptospirosis among wildlife in Southeastern France. Due to their predatory behavior and their varied diet, mainly composed of small mammals, red foxes could be considered sentinel animals of environmental contamination with leptospires. Keywords: France, Leptospira spp., red fox, wild boar.

Keywords: France, Leptospira spp., red fox, wild boar.

How to cite this article: Roquelo C, Kodjo A, Marié J, Davoust B (2021) Serological and molecular survey of Leptospira spp. infections in wild boars and red foxes from Southeastern France, Veterinary World, 14(4): 825-828.

Received: 09-11-2020 Accepted: 16-02-2021 Published online: 02-04-2021

Corresponding author: Bernard Davoust E-mail: bernard.davoust@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.825-828

Copyright: Roquelo, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.