Leptospirosis is an important waterborne zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira. The pathogen is maintained in a population due to chronic colonization and shedding from renal tubules of domestic and wild animals. Humans and other animals become infected when they come in contact with urine from infected animals, either directly or through urine-contaminated surface water. In this study, we screened environmental water on the island of St. Kitts by using a TaqMan based real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) targeting a pathogen specific leptospiral gene, lipl32. Our results indicate that around one-fifth of tested water sources have detectable leptospiral DNA.

Introduction: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp. Leptospirosis is maintained in an environment due to chronic kidney infection of a wide variety of domestic, peridomestic and wild reservoir mammals. In this study the role of pigs in maintenance of leptospires on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts was investigated. Methodology: The condemned kidneys of 60 pigs slaughtered at a St. Kitts abattoir were screened by a quantitative-PCR for the presence of Leptospira spp. Positive samples were genotyped using a six-gene based multilocus sequence typing scheme. Results: Leptospiral DNA was detected in the kidneys of one of the 60 pigs. Multilocus sequence typing identified the infecting species to be L. interrogans. Conclusions: Detection of this zoonotic pathogen in the kidneys of a seemingly healthy pig raises concerns regarding the subclinical carriers of the disease among the island’s swine population.

Through prospective enrollment of canine patients at the Ross University Veterinary Clinic, on St. Kitts, four cases of acute fatal leptospirosis were diagnosed. Clinical, pathological, and diagnostic findings in these cases are summarized in this case series. Icterus, thrombocytopenia, hyperphosphatemia, pulmonary hemorrhage, and both hepatocellular and renal damage were noted in all four cases. Interestingly, extensive myocardial involvement was also observed in one case. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of myocarditis in a dog with leptospirosis, and the first report of fatal leptospirosis in any animal species on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

In this report, we present a case of dermatophytosis in a dog seropositive for Ehrlichia spp.Mild annular skin lesions observed on initial presentation persisted and became worse during the course of antibiotic therapy.