Last data update: May 13, 2024. (Total: 46773 publications since 2009)
Records 1-5 (of 5 Records) |
Query Trace: Haake DA[original query] |
---|
Pathogenic Leptospira are widespread in the urban wildlife of southern California
Helman SK , Tokuyama AFN , Mummah RO , Stone NE , Gamble MW , Snedden CE , Borremans B , Gomez ACR , Cox C , Nussbaum J , Tweedt I , Haake DA , Galloway RL , Monzón J , Riley SPD , Sikich JA , Brown J , Friscia A , Sahl JW , Wagner DM , Lynch JW , Prager KC , Lloyd-Smith JO . Sci Rep 2023 13 (1) 14368 Leptospirosis, the most widespread zoonotic disease in the world, is broadly understudied in multi-host wildlife systems. Knowledge gaps regarding Leptospira circulation in wildlife, particularly in densely populated areas, contribute to frequent misdiagnoses in humans and domestic animals. We assessed Leptospira prevalence levels and risk factors in five target wildlife species across the greater Los Angeles region: striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), raccoons (Procyon lotor), coyotes (Canis latrans), Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), and fox squirrels (Sciurus niger). We sampled more than 960 individual animals, including over 700 from target species in the greater Los Angeles region, and an additional 266 sampled opportunistically from other California regions and species. In the five target species seroprevalences ranged from 5 to 60%, and infection prevalences ranged from 0.8 to 15.2% in all except fox squirrels (0%). Leptospira phylogenomics and patterns of serologic reactivity suggest that mainland terrestrial wildlife, particularly mesocarnivores, could be the source of repeated observed introductions of Leptospira into local marine and island ecosystems. Overall, we found evidence of widespread Leptospira exposure in wildlife across Los Angeles and surrounding regions. This indicates exposure risk for humans and domestic animals and highlights that this pathogen can circulate endemically in many wildlife species even in densely populated urban areas. |
Pathogenic Leptospira are widespread in the urban wildlife of southern California (preprint)
Helman SK , Tokuyama AFN , Mummah RO , Gamble MW , Snedden CE , Borremans B , Gomez ACR , Cox C , Nussbaum J , Tweedt I , Haake DA , Galloway RL , Monzon J , Riley SPD , Sikich JA , Brown J , Friscia A , Lynch JW , Prager KC , Lloyd-Smith JO . bioRxiv 2023 15 Leptospirosis is the most widespread zoonotic disease in the world, yet it is broadly understudied in multi-host wildlife systems. Knowledge gaps regarding Leptospira circulation in wildlife, particularly in densely populated areas, contribute to frequent misdiagnoses in humans and domestic animals. We assessed Leptospira prevalence levels and risk factors in five target wildlife species across the greater Los Angeles region: striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), Northern raccoons (Procyon lotor), coyotes (Canis latrans), Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), and fox squirrels (Sciurus niger). We sampled more than 960 individual animals, including over 700 from target species in the greater Los Angeles region, and an additional 260 sampled opportunistically from other regions and species. In the five target species, seroprevalences ranged from 5-60% and active infection prevalences ranged from 0.8-15.2% in all except fox squirrels (0%). Patterns of serologic reactivity suggest that mainland terrestrial wildlife, particularly mesocarnivores, could be the source of repeated observed introductions of Leptospira into local marine and island ecosystems. Overall, we found evidence of widespread Leptospira exposure in wildlife across Los Angeles and surrounding regions. This indicates exposure risk for humans and domestic animals and highlights that this pathogen can circulate endemically in many wildlife species even in densely populated urban areas. Copyright The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. |
Role of Diagnostics in Epidemiology, Management, Surveillance, and Control of Leptospirosis.
Sykes JE , Reagan KL , Nally JE , Galloway RL , Haake DA . Pathogens 2022 11 (4) A One Health approach to the epidemiology, management, surveillance, and control of leptospirosis relies on accessible and accurate diagnostics that can be applied to humans and companion animals and livestock. Diagnosis should be multifaceted and take into account exposure risk, clinical presentation, and multiple direct and/or indirect diagnostic approaches. Methods of direct detection of Leptospira spp. include culture, histopathology and immunostaining of tissues or clinical specimens, and nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs). Indirect serologic methods to detect leptospiral antibodies include the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and lateral flow methods. Rapid diagnostics that can be applied at the point-of-care; NAAT and lateral flow serologic tests are essential for management of acute infection and control of outbreaks. Culture is essential to an understanding of regional knowledge of circulating strains, and we discuss recent improvements in methods for cultivation, genomic sequencing, and serotyping. We review the limitations of NAATs, MAT, and other diagnostic approaches in the context of our expanding understanding of the diversity of pathogenic Leptospira spp. Novel approaches are needed, such as loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based approaches to leptospiral nucleic acid detection. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. |
Leptospiral Infections in Humans
Haake DA , Galloway RL . Clin Microbiol Newsl 2021 43 (20) 173-180 Leptospirosis is a globally widespread spirochetal infection spread from animals to humans. Infections are common in settings of endemicity, primarily in tropical regions of the world. Leptospirosis is typically a self-limited febrile illness but may progress to potentially fatal multiorgan system failure. Patients often present with a nonspecific acute febrile illness that is clinically difficult to distinguish from other similarly presenting infections endemic to tropical regions, including dengue fever, influenza, and malaria. A high index of suspicion is essential to early identification of patients who may benefit from antimicrobial therapy. Diagnostic testing is key to both recognition of early infection and outbreak investigation, typically in the setting of water exposure after heavy rainfall and flooding. This review focuses on the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and laboratory diagnosis of leptospirosis, including nucleic acid amplification tests, culture, direct detection, and serological approaches. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. |
What Makes a Bacterial Species Pathogenic?:Comparative Genomic Analysis of the Genus Leptospira.
Fouts DE , Matthias MA , Adhikarla H , Adler B , Amorim-Santos L , Berg DE , Bulach D , Buschiazzo A , Chang YF , Galloway RL , Haake DA , Haft DH , Hartskeerl R , Ko AI , Levett PN , Matsunaga J , Mechaly AE , Monk JM , Nascimento AL , Nelson KE , Palsson B , Peacock SJ , Picardeau M , Ricaldi JN , Thaipandungpanit J , Wunder EA Jr , Yang XF , Zhang JJ , Vinetz JM . PLoS Negl Trop Dis 2016 10 (2) e0004403 Leptospirosis, caused by spirochetes of the genus Leptospira, is a globally widespread, neglected and emerging zoonotic disease. While whole genome analysis of individual pathogenic, intermediately pathogenic and saprophytic Leptospira species has been reported, comprehensive cross-species genomic comparison of all known species of infectious and non-infectious Leptospira, with the goal of identifying genes related to pathogenesis and mammalian host adaptation, remains a key gap in the field. Infectious Leptospira, comprised of pathogenic and intermediately pathogenic Leptospira, evolutionarily diverged from non-infectious, saprophytic Leptospira, as demonstrated by the following computational biology analyses: 1) the definitive taxonomy and evolutionary relatedness among all known Leptospira species; 2) genomically-predicted metabolic reconstructions that indicate novel adaptation of infectious Leptospira to mammals, including sialic acid biosynthesis, pathogen-specific porphyrin metabolism and the first-time demonstration of cobalamin (B12) autotrophy as a bacterial virulence factor; 3) CRISPR/Cas systems demonstrated only to be present in pathogenic Leptospira, suggesting a potential mechanism for this clade's refractoriness to gene targeting; 4) finding Leptospira pathogen-specific specialized protein secretion systems; 5) novel virulence-related genes/gene families such as the Virulence Modifying (VM) (PF07598 paralogs) proteins and pathogen-specific adhesins; 6) discovery of novel, pathogen-specific protein modification and secretion mechanisms including unique lipoprotein signal peptide motifs, Sec-independent twin arginine protein secretion motifs, and the absence of certain canonical signal recognition particle proteins from all Leptospira; and 7) and demonstration of infectious Leptospira-specific signal-responsive gene expression, motility and chemotaxis systems. By identifying large scale changes in infectious (pathogenic and intermediately pathogenic) vs. non-infectious Leptospira, this work provides new insights into the evolution of a genus of bacterial pathogens. This work will be a comprehensive roadmap for understanding leptospirosis pathogenesis. More generally, it provides new insights into mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens adapt to mammalian hosts. |
- Page last reviewed:Feb 1, 2024
- Page last updated:May 13, 2024
- Content source:
- Powered by CDC PHGKB Infrastructure