Molecular Characterization of Species among Patients with Acute Undifferentiated Febrile Illness from the Municipality of Villeta, Colombia.

is a bacterial genus that includes several pathogenic species related to leptospirosis. In Colombia, leptospirosis is a mandatorily reported disease, widely distributed across the country. In the Villeta municipality, leptospirosis has been identified as an important cause of febrile illness; however, to date, no studies have been performed to identify the circulating species. A genus-specific qualitative qPCR was performed on DNA extracted from febrile patients' acute-phase whole-blood samples targeting a fragment of the gene. Positive qPCR samples were further amplified for the , , , , , and genes through conventional PCR for sequencing. All high-quality obtained sequences were further assessed through concatenated phylogenetic analysis. A total of 25% (14/56) of febrile patients' acute blood samples were positive for spp. High-quality sequences were obtained for only five genes, and analysis through concatenated phylogeny identified that all sequences clustered within the P1/pathogenic clade; some of them formed a robustly supported clade with , and others were closely related with other species but exhibited considerable genetic divergence. We describe the presence of pathogenic species among febrile patients from the Villeta municipality and identify and other species as causative agents of leptospirosis in the region.