Isolation and molecular characterization of Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Ballum

Abstract

Rodents are the main reservoirs of pathogenic leptospires, spreading the organism to the environment and so the major risk factor for both, animals and humans to acquire leptospirosis. To assess such a role, 50 mice (Mus musculus) were caught in a dairy farm in the municipality of Teoloyucan, State of Mexico in central Mexico. Anti-Leptospira antibody titers (≥1:20), were obtained in 46 % (23) of the animals by the microscopic agglutination test (MAT), where the most common serovars detected were: Ballum 38 % (19), Canicola 10 % (5) and Australis 2 % (1). Three Leptospira isolates (6 %) were obtained by culture of mice kidneys macerates. The cultures were identified as L. borgpetersenii serovar Ballum by cross-MAT, IS1533-based PCR assay, rrs2 (rRNA) sequencing, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and by multiple locus sequencing typing (MLST). As far as we know, this is the first report on the isolation of L. borgpetersenii serovar Ballum recovered from Mus musculus in Mexico.