Co-Radiation of and Tenrecidae (Afrotheria) on Madagascar.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonosis caused by pathogenic that are maintained in the kidney lumen of infected animals acting as reservoirs and contaminating the environment via infected urine. The investigation of leptospirosis through a framework has been stimulated by notable genetic diversity of pathogenic combined with a high infection prevalence in certain animal reservoirs. Studies of Madagascar's native mammal fauna have revealed a diversity of with high levels of host-specificity. Native rodents, tenrecids, and bats shelter several distinct lineages and species of , some of which have also been detected in acute human cases. Specifically, , first discovered in humans on Mayotte, an island neighboring Madagascar, was subsequently identified in a few species of tenrecids on the latter island, which comprise an endemic family of small mammals. Distinct lineages were identified in shrew tenrecs ( and ) on Madagascar, and later in an introduced population of spiny tenrecs () on Mayotte. These findings suggest that (i) has co-radiated with tenrecids on Madagascar, and (ii) has recently emerged in human populations on Mayotte following the introduction of from Madagascar. Hitherto, has not been detected in spiny tenrecs on Madagascar. In the present study, we broaden the investigation of Malagasy tenrecids and test the emergence of in humans as a result of the introduction of on Mayotte. We screened by PCR 55 tenrecid samples from Madagascar, including kidney tissues from 24 individual . We describe the presence of in Malagasy in agreement with the aforementioned hypothesis, as well as in , a tenrecid species that has not been explored thus far for carriage.