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The burden of leptospirosis in humans and animals in Africa is higher than that reported
from other parts of the world. However, the disease is not routinely diagnosed in the continent.
One of major factors limiting diagnosis is the poor availability of live isolates of locally
circulating Leptospira serovars for inclusion in the antigen panel of the gold standard microscopic
agglutination test (MAT) for detecting antibodies against leptospirosis. To gain
insight in Leptospira serovars and their natural hosts occurring in Tanzania, concomitantly
enabling the improvement of the MAT by inclusion of fresh local isolates, a total of 52 Leptospira
isolates were obtained from fresh urine and kidney homogenates, collected between
1996 and 2006 from small mammals, cattle and pigs. Isolates were identified by serogrouping,
cross agglutination absorption test (CAAT), and molecular typing. Common Leptospira
serovars with their respective animal hosts were: Sokoine (cattle and rodents); Kenya
(rodents and shrews); Mwogolo (rodents); Lora (rodents); Qunjian (rodent); serogroup Grippotyphosa
(cattle); and an unknown serogroup from pigs. Inclusion of local serovars particularly
serovar Sokoine in MAT revealed a 10-fold increase in leptospirosis prevalence in
Tanzania from 1.9% to 16.9%in rodents and 0.26% to 10.75% in humans. This indicates
that local serovars are useful for diagnosis of human and animal leptospirosis in Tanzania
and other African countries. |
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