Cocirculation of Leptospira spp. andmultiple orthohantaviruses in rodents, Lithuania, Northern Europe

Jeske, Kathrin; Schulz, Jana; Tekemen, Duygu; Balciauskas, Linas; Balciauskiene, Laima; Hiltbrunner, Melanie; Drewes, Stephan; Mayer-Scholl, Anne; Heckel, Gerald; Ulrich, Rainer G. (2022). Cocirculation of Leptospira spp. andmultiple orthohantaviruses in rodents, Lithuania, Northern Europe. Transboundary and emerging diseases, 69(5), e3196-e3201. Wiley 10.1111/tbed.14470

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In Europe, zoonotic Leptospira spp. and orthohantaviruses are mainly associated with
specific rodent hosts.These pathogens cause febrilehumandiseaseswith similar symptoms
and disease progression. In Lithuania, the presence of Dobrava-Belgrade orthohantavirus
(DOBV), Tula orthohantavirus (TULV) and Leptospira spp. in rodent reservoirs is still unknown, and Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) was detected in bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) at only one site. Therefore, we collected and screened
1617 rodents and insectivores from Lithuania for zoonotic (re-)emerging Leptospira
and orthohantaviruses. We detected Leptospira DNA in six rodent species, namely
striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius), yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis),
bank vole, common vole (Microtus arvalis), field vole (Microtus agrestis) and root vole
(Microtus oeconomus). Leptospira DNA was detected with an overall mean prevalence
of 4.4% (range 3.7%–7.9% per rodent species). We detected DOBV RNA in 5.6% of
the striped field mice, PUUV RNA in 1% of bank voles and TULV RNA in 4.6% of common
voles, but no Leptospira DNA in shrews and no hantavirus-Leptospira coinfections
in rodents. Based on the complete coding sequences of the three genome segments,
two distant DOBV phylogenetic lineages in striped field mice, one PUUV strain in bank
voles and two TULVstrains in common voles were identified. The Leptospira prevalence
for striped field mice and yellow-necked mice indicated a significant negative effect of
the distance to water points. The detection of (re-)emerging human pathogenic Leptospira
and three orthohantaviruses in rodent reservoirs in Lithuania calls for increased awareness of public health institutions and allows the improvement of molecular diagnostics for pathogen identification.

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