Short communication: Uterine leptospiral infection is strongly associated to strains of serogroup Sejroe on experimentally infected hamsters.

Leptospira infection is influenced by the host species and the bacterial strain involved. Important differences on their tissue distribution are referred, also depending on the host and the studied strain. Considering tissue distribution of leptospires the majority of the studies focus on a single strain, or strains from the same serogroup with different inoculation doses. Nevertheless, none had associated different serogroups with their tissue distribution. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the hypothesis that tissue distribution of Leptospira spp. on experimentally infected hamsters may vary according to the strain serogroup. Females of Golden Syrian hamsters were used for the experimental infection with Leptospira isolates (n = 13) belonging to serogroups Icterohaemorrhagiae (n = 8) and Sejroe (n = 5). PCRs were conducted in renal, hepatic and uterine tissue. Seven out of the thirteen studied hamsters presented acute clinical signs and were euthanized before the 21° day p.i. (strains VF237, VF52, U81, UFF-SG001, UFF-G19, UFF-B15, L1-130), while the others presented a subclinical infection. Regarding to the PCR results it was possible to observe that, all but one strain (UFF-SG001), which was detected on all the studied tissues, presented some differences on their tissue distribution. All strains could be detected on at least one tissue and a significant association was observed for the occurrence of the strains of serogroup Sejroe in uterus (p = 0.044). The results of the present study indicate that strains of serogroup Sejroe are strongly associated to uterine infection on experimentally infected hamsters.