Reservoir hosts of Leptospira inadai in India

Isolation of Leptospira from the kidneys of Rattus rattus wroughtoni hinton , Rattus rattus rufescens, Bandicota bengalensis and Bandicota indica was a ttempted in Bangalore in southern India. In total, 296 spirochaetes were is olated from 1,348 kidney cultures tan isolation rate of 22%). A batch of fi fty-six isolates from India was identified, based on serological and polyme rase chain reaction analysis, of which twenty-three isolates were identifie d as L. inadai by the World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organi zation Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, in Brisbane. This is the first record of isolation of L. inadai from rodents. The preponderance of L. inadai in four different species of rodents sugges ts that these animals could be the natural reservoir hosts of L, inadai, an d raises a critical question as to the likely impact of this species of Lep tospira on the renal carrier status of other Leptospira pathogenic to human s and animals in this part of India. Virulence studies conducted at the University of Trieste in Italy, revealed that isolates of L, inadai from India were moderately or totally serum res istant when subjected to a serum killing test. To establish the possible se roprevalence of this species in the population, the inclusion of L. inadai in the battery of leptospiral antigens used for sero-epidemiological studie s is recommended.