Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution with a significant veterinary and public health impact. It is caused by pathogenic bacteria of the genus Leptospira. The availability of effective tools to accurately identify and type leptospires is of utmost importance for the diagnosis of the disease and for assessing its epidemiology. Several multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) approaches were described for the typing of worldwide isolates of Leptospira but an extensive agreement towards the adoption of a unique consensus scheme for this agent is still lacking. Most genotyped strains originate from Asian and South American countries, with a minority originating from Europe (being most countries represented only by one or a few isolates). The knowledge of the diversity of circulating leptospires is the key to understanding the disease transmission and its zoonotic implications. In this study, we revisited the taxonomy of several isolates of pathogenic Leptospira obtained from domestic, wild and captive animals in Portugal, between 1990 and 2012. A selection of these isolates was genotyped using two previously published MLST schemes. A total of seven distinct sequence types (STs) were detected among the Portuguese isolates with two STs representing L. borgpetersenii (ST149 and ST152), two STs representing L. kirschneri (ST117 and ST100) and three STs representing L. interrogans (ST17, ST24 and ST140). Global widespread (and maybe more virulent) Leptospira genotypes seem to circulate in Portugal, particularly the L. interrogans ST17 isolates which are associated with several outbreaks of leptospirosis among humans and animals in different regions of the world. This study contributes to the enrichment of the global MLST databases with a new set of allele and sequence type information also providing novel data on circulating Leptospira serovars in Portugal.

中文翻译：

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葡萄牙野生，家养和圈养寄主物种致病钩端螺旋体的遗传多样性。

钩端螺旋体病是一种在全球范围内被忽视的人畜共患病，对兽医和公共卫生产生重大影响。它是由钩端螺旋体属的致病菌引起的。准确识别和鉴别钩端螺旋体的有效工具的可用性对于疾病的诊断和评估其流行病学至关重要。描述了几种全球范围的钩端螺旋体分离株的多位点序列分型（MLST）方法，但仍缺乏广泛的一致意见，需要采用唯一的共识方案对该病原体进行鉴定。大多数基因型菌株来自亚洲和南美国家，少数来自欧洲（大多数国家仅由一个或几个分离株代表）。了解循环钩端螺旋体的多样性是了解疾病传播及其人畜共患意义的关键。在这项研究中，我们重新研究了1990年至2012年间从葡萄牙的家养，野生和圈养动物中分离得到的几种致病性钩端螺旋体分离株的分类学。使用两个先前发表的MLST方案对这些分离株进行了基因分型。在葡萄牙分离株中总共检测到七个不同的序列类型（ST），其中两个ST代表博格特氏乳杆菌（ST149和ST152），两个ST代表柯氏乳杆菌（ST117和ST100），三个ST代表询问豆乳杆菌（ST17， ST24和ST140）。全球流行的（或可能更具毒性的）钩端螺旋体基因型似乎在葡萄牙流行，尤其是L。Interrogans ST17分离株与世界不同地区的人和动物中的几次钩端螺旋体病暴发有关。这项研究为全球MLST数据库的丰富提供了一组新的等位基因和序列类型信息，也为葡萄牙流通的钩端螺旋体血清型提供了新颖的数据。