Molecular detection of pathogenic Leptospira spp. in urban rodents from wet markets in northeast Malaysia.

Objective: This short study describes the occurrence of pathogenic spp. in two major wet markets in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.

Materials And Methods: 30 rodents (20 rats and 10 shrews) were caught in 2 wet markets, and a postmortem was performed to extract both kidneys. Molecular diagnosis via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted to detect leptospiral DNA using universal and pathogenic primers, respectively.

Results: The results showed that 20/28 (72%) rat samples were detected positive for spp, and all shrews were negative. Further sequencing analysis identified and as the most frequently species from kidney samples.

Conclusions: The presented study here sheds light on the presence of pathogenic leptospires harboring the rat population in both wet markets in Kelantan, which presents a great public health risk to wet market workers and visitors.