First Observation of in the Lungs of .

We report the first two cases of pulmonary presence of leptospires in apparently healthy rats captured in a city park in Lyon (France). Only renal carriage of has been described in the literature. Blood serology was performed in parallel with molecular and histological analyses of the kidney and lung samples. We isolated leptospires from the kidneys of two out of three seropositive wild rats. These results were confirmed by specific detection of pathogenic by real-time PCR. Moreover, DNA was detected in lung tissues. Immunohistochemistry and Warthin-Starry staining revealed that leptospires were present on the surface of the ciliated epithelium of the bronchi. Using PCR of the (16S) gene and Multispacer Sequence Typing, DNA extracts of the kidney and lung were identified as belonging to serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae "CHU Réunion." This first observation of the presence in the lung with simultaneous renal carriage will require further study in future on several target organs to gain a better understanding of the infection in wild rat.