A Case of Infection with Leptospires from Three Different Serovars During a Flood in the Philippines.

Leptospirosis a significant and life-threatening zoonosis with global reach. If diagnosis and treatment are delayed, the infection may lead to fatal Weil's disease. In the Philippines, a 21-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with leptospirosis-like symptoms, including fever, myalgia, headache, anuria, jaundice, hemorrhage, skin rash, and diarrhea.

Identification of Species in Environmental Soil of Urban Settlements in Cambodia.

Leptospirosis represents a major public health threat in Cambodia. To help establish preventive strategies for leptospirosis, we isolated and identified from soil collected in Phnom Penh and its neighboring province during the dry and rainy seasons. Soil samples were collected from 15 sites in the Phnom Penh metropolitan area and Kandal Province in 2019 and 2020.

Light dependent synthesis of a nucleotide second messenger controls the motility of a spirochete bacterium.

Nucleotide second messengers are universally crucial factors for the signal transduction of various organisms. In prokaryotes, cyclic nucleotide messengers are involved in the bacterial life cycle and in functions such as virulence and biofilm formation, mainly via gene regulation. Here, we show that the swimming motility of the soil bacterium Leptospira kobayashii is rapidly modulated by light stimulation.

Is an Environmental Bacterium That Grows in Waterlogged Soil.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by infection with pathogenic leptospires. Consistent with recent studies by other groups, leptospires were isolated from 89 out of 110 (80.9%) soil or water samples from varied locations in the Philippines in our surveillance study, indicating that leptospires might have a life cycle that does not involve animal hosts.

A machine learning model of microscopic agglutination test for diagnosis of leptospirosis.

Leptospirosis is a zoonosis caused by the pathogenic bacterium Leptospira. The Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) is widely used as the gold standard for diagnosis of leptospirosis. In this method, diluted patient serum is mixed with serotype-determined Leptospires, and the presence or absence of aggregation is determined under a dark-field microscope to calculate the antibody titer.

Complete Genome Sequence of Leptospira kobayashii Strain E30, Isolated from Soil in Japan.

The spirochete bacterium Leptospira kobayashii is a recently designated species of the genus . Here, we report the complete genome sequence of L. kobayashii strain E30, consisting of two circular chromosomes and two plasmids.

Detection of Asian-Type from Inhabiting Tver Province (Russia): A Sympatric Region for and .

, a hard tick-borne relapsing fever agent, was sampled in and ticks from the Tver province in Russia (a sympatric region of both tick species) and examined by TaqMan-PCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene. was detected in 4 out of 168 ticks: 2 out of 58 ticks (infection rate 2.9%) and 2 out of 110 ticks (1.

Comparison of Leptospira species isolated from environmental water and soil in Japan.

Leptospira was isolated from environmental water in central Japan using selective medium comprising five antibiotics, namely sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, amphotericin B, fosfomycin, and 5-fluorouracil. Of 100 water samples 57 (57%) were culture-positive and 50 pure cultures were isolated. Of the 50 cultures isolated from water 48 were classified into a saprophytic clade on the basis of 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences.

Revisiting the taxonomy and evolution of pathogenicity of the genus Leptospira through the prism of genomics.

The causative agents of leptospirosis are responsible for an emerging zoonotic disease worldwide. One of the major routes of transmission for leptospirosis is the natural environment contaminated with the urine of a wide range of reservoir animals. Soils and surface waters also host a high diversity of non-pathogenic Leptospira and species for which the virulence status is not clearly established.

Molecular and phenotypic characterization of Leptospira johnsonii sp. nov., Leptospira ellinghausenii sp. nov. and Leptospira ryugenii sp. nov. isolated from soil and water in Japan.

In a previous study, 50 of 132 soil samples collected throughout Japan were found to be Leptospira-positive. In the present study, three strains identified in the collected specimens, three, E8, E18 and YH101, were found to be divergent from previously described Leptospira species according to 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence analysis. These three strains have a helical shape similar to that of typical Leptospira and were not re-isolated from experimental mice inoculated with the cultured strains.

Case control study: Serological evidence that Borrelia miyamotoi disease occurs nationwide in Japan.

Since 2011, Borrelia miyamotoi disease (BMD) has been reported in five countries in the northern hemisphere. The causative agent of BMD is transmitted by Ixodes ticks, which are also vectors of Lyme disease borreliae. In this study, we examined 459 cases of clinically suspected Lyme disease (LD group), and found twelve cases that were seropositive for the glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase (GlpQ) antigen derived from B.

Molecular Epidemiological Survey of Leptospira Infection of Wild Rodents in the Urban Settlement of Cambodia.

Introduction: Leptospirosis remains a major public health threat in Cambodia. In this study, we aimed at facilitating the development of preventive strategies against leptospirosis in Cambodia by conducting molecular epidemiological surveys of Leptospira infection among wild rodents.

Materials And Methods: One hundred sixty-three wild rodents were captured in the capital Phnom Penh and surrounding areas, and their kidneys and bladders were collected for analysis.

Characterization of Leptospira species isolated from soil collected in Japan.

Leptospira were isolated from soil obtained from Hokkaido, the northernmost island, to Okinawa, the southernmost island, of Japan using sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, amphotericin B, fosfomycin, and 5- fluorouracil. Fifty of 132 soil samples (37.9%) were culture-positive.

Detection and Characterization of the Emerging Relapsing Fever Pathogen, Borrelia miyamotoi, from the Ixodes ricinus Tick in the Rural Trakya (Thrace) Region of Northwestern Turkey.

The hard tick-borne relapsing fever agent, Borrelia miyamotoi infection in Ixodes ricinus ticks sampled from Istanbul and the countryside of Kirklareli in northwestern Turkey, was examined by TaqMan-PCR targeting 16S rDNA, nested PCR targeting 16S rDNA, the flagellin gene (flaB), and the 16S and 23S rDNA intergenic spacer (IGS), and sequencing analyses of these amplicons. B. miyamotoi was detected in 1 out of 248 I.

Prevalence of Borrelia miyamotoi in Ixodes persulcatus in Irkutsk City and its neighboring territories, Russia.

Adult Ixodes persulcatus were collected in highly populated districts in Irkutsk city, Russia, and in popular recreational and professional areas in its neighboring territories. Borrelia miyamotoi infection in I. persulcatus was examined using multiplex Taqman-PCR targeting 16S rDNA, and nested PCR and sequencing analyses targeting flaB and 16S rDNA.

Borrelia yangtzensis sp. nov., a rodent-associated species in Asia, is related to Borrelia valaisiana.

Twenty-nine isolates of Lyme borreliosis (LB) group spirochaetes collected from ticks and rodents in China and Japan were included in a multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA). Using a different typing system, three of these strains had previously been identified as being divergent from other LB spirochaete species and the name 'Borrelia yangtze' sp. nov.

Age-Related Changes in Soluble Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 1 (sVEGFR1) and Receptor 2 (sVEGFR2) in Healthy Japanese Subjects.

We measured serum soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (sVEGFR1) and receptor 2 (sVEGFR2) levels in healthy Japanese individuals in order to establish a reference value using a specific ELISA. Significant differences were observed in serum sVEGFR1 and sVEGFR2 levels between children and adults. To demonstrate the usefulness of the reference value for children, we measured serum sVEGFR1 and sVEGFR2 levels in children with diarrhea positive (D+) hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) as a preliminary study.

The usefulness of semi-solid medium in the isolation of highly virulent Leptospira strains from wild rats in an urban area of Fukuoka, Japan.

Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis. The importance of urban leptospirosis is recognized in Japan: urban rats carry pathogenic leptospires and people acquire these pathogens through contact with surface water or soil contaminated by the urine of the infected animals. To determine the current Leptospira carriage rate in urban rats, 29 wild rats were trapped in the central area of Fukuoka and strains isolated from their kidneys and urine analyzed.

[Leptospirosis now-the centennial of the discovery of Weil's disease pathogen].

This year, 2014, marks the centennial of the discovery of Leptospira as the Weil's disease pathogen by Ryokichi Inada, Yutaka Ido and their colleagues. Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis especially in countries with tropical and subtropical climates. Recently, the number of patients with leptospirosis dramatically decreased in Japan because public hygiene has greatly improved, the mechanization of agriculture was introduced, and farmers started using rubber boots and gloves while working in the field.

Antibacterial effects of protruding and recessed shark skin micropatterned surfaces of polyacrylate plate with a shallow groove.

Antibacterial effects in terms of biofilm formation and swarming motility were studied using polyacrylate plates having protruding or recessed shark skin micropatterned surfaces with a shallow groove (2 μm pattern width and spacing, 0.4 μm pattern height). It was found that biofilm formation and swarming motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were strongly inhibited by the shark skin pattern plates with a shallow (0.

PCR and culture identification of pathogenic Leptospira spp. from coastal soil in Leyte, Philippines, after a storm surge during Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).

Leptospirosis is a zoonosis caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp. Most of the outbreaks of leptospirosis occur after floods caused by heavy rain in countries where Leptospira spp. are endemic.

Leptospira-rat-human relationship in Luzon, Philippines.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic infection that is caused by the pathogenic species of Leptospira. Rats are the most important reservoirs of these organisms. Our study aimed to characterize Leptospira isolates from humans and rats and elucidate the Leptospira-rat-human relationship in Luzon, Philippines.

Detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Anaplasma bovis in small wild mammals from Taichung and Kinmen Island, Taiwan.

A total of 138 animals from 7 species (Apodemus agrarius, Bandicota indica, Crocidura suaveolens, Mus caroli, Mus formosanus, Rattus losea, and Suncus murinus) captured in Taichung, located in central Taiwan, and Kinmen Island, an island off the shore of China, were examined for the presence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The presence of the bacteria, which causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis, was examined by nested PCR targeting the16S rDNA. Twelve animals (8.

PCR detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes persulcatus ticks in Mongolia.

A molecular epidemiological survey was conducted to identify the tick-borne disease agents Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in Selenge Province, Mongolia. The survey was in response to a suspected A. phagocytophilum infection in a patient.