The eco-epidemiology of leptospirosis in South Africa and Madagascar (360G-Wellcome-216634_Z_19_Z)

In a changing world, zoonotic pathogens are an increasing risk to human health. Leptospirosis is a widespread and common zoonotic disease with the greatest burden of disease falling on the poorest communities in the developing world. Leptospirosis is increasingly being recognised as a public health threat in South Africa and Madagascar and an urgent need has been identified to establish which Leptospira strains are responsible for human infections and what their key reservoir hosts are. Leptospira are notoriously challenging and time consuming organisms to culture. Therefore, using recent advances in DNA capture and enrichment technologies, I aim to identify evidence of transmission between reservoir hosts and humans by generating culture-independent high resolution molecular typing data directly from human and reservoir host samples. These data will be used to refine diagnostic antigen panels, identify the animal sources of human infection and inform control programs. Increasing the Leptospira genomic resources from sub-Saharan Africa will also allow me to explore fundamental questions related to the microevolutionary changes required for cross-species transmission of zoonotic pathogens and the role of horizontal genetic transfer in the evolution of bacteria in a real world system.