Detection of Leptospira in a forest fragmentation area in eastern Amazon: A unique health approach

The objective of this study was to detect the presence of anti-Leptospira spp. in samples of humans and domestic animals of forest fragmentation areas in the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 208 samples from dogs, cats, and humans were collected during two expeditions within the same fragment. Detection of anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies was performed by the Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) using live antigens from 19 Leptospira spp. serogroups and DNA detection of Leptospira 16S rRNA gene was done using Polymerase Chain Reaction. After the analysis, we observed 24.03% (50/208) of reactive serum samples, where the most prevalent serogroups circulating in the human and animal population were Canicola, Djasiman, Cynopteri, and Serjoe. Leptospira DNA was detected only in the samples of 13 dogs, which demonstrated 100% identity with L. interrogans DNA deposited in the GenBank. We concluded that there is a circulation of Leptospira spp. in the studied fragment.