Spirochaetes

BACTERIA

Overview

• Two families exist, Leptospiraceae and Spirochaetaceae
• Leptospiraceae include the pathogens of the genus Leptospira
• Spirochaetaceae include the pathogens of the genera Borrelia, Brachyspira and Treponema
• Many cause zoonotic infections

Characteristics

• Spiral or helical Gram-negative bacteria
• Motile organisms via endoflagella
• Poor survival in the environment and sensitive to dessication
• Stain poorly with Gram stain
• Most require specialised media for growth
• Serology required for identification

Leptospira

• Motile, helical bacteria found in aquatic environments
• Require liquid media for culture
• Cause leptospirosis in all animals, which can range from mild urogenital tract infections to systemic diseases
• Organisms persist in kidney tubules or genital tract of carrier animals and are shed in urine
• Transmission via direct contact
• Serovars are fairly host-specific, causing mild disease in the maintenance host, with shedding in the urine
• Maintenance hosts may transmit the infection to incidental hosts, which are less susceptible to infection, but develop serious disease
• May cause severe systemic disease, resulting in enteritis

• Pathogenesis and pathogenicity
  • Depends on virulence of the serovar and susceptibility of the host
  • Leptospires invade tissues through moist skin or via mucous membranes, aided by their motility
  • Leptospires may invade via receptor-mediated endocytosis
  • They disseminate through the body via the blood stream
  • Antibodies clear organisms from the blood stream after about 10 days of infection
  • Organisms may persist in the renal tubules, uterus, eye or meninges
  • Evade phagocytosis possibly via macrophage apoptosis
  • Damage red blood cell membranes and endothelial and liver cells, leading to haemolytic anaemia, jaundice, haemoglobin pigmentation, haemoglobinuria and haemorrhage in acute leptospirosis

• Diagnosis
  • Clinical signs and history of exposure
  • Dark-field microscopy of urine may detect organisms
  • Isolation from blood or urine by culture or animal inoculation
  • Identificaiton or certain serovars using DNA probes and serology
  • FLuorescent antibody technique for identification in tissues
  • Silver impregnation
  • Molecular techniques such as PCR
  • Serology using microscopic agglutination test or ELISA

• Clinical infections
  • Cattle and sheep
    • Cattle are maintenance hosts for L. borgpetersenii serovar hardjo
    • L. interrogans serovar hardjo is host-adapted to cattle
    • Acute disease in susceptible heifers, with fever and agalactia of all quarters; abortion and stillbirth may occur
    • Diagnosed by rising antibody titre in paired serum samples
    • Infection in sheep may cause abortion and agalactia
    • Urinary excretion can be reduced by administering dihydrostreptomycin or amoxycillin
    • Incactivated vaccines are of questionable efficacy
    • Serovars pomona, grippotyphosa and icterohaemorrhagiae cause pyrexia, haemoglobinurea, jaundice, anorexia, uraemia due to renal damage and death in calves and lambs

• • Horses
    • Clinical disease rare
    • May be maintenance host of serovar bratislava, which causes abortion and stillbirth
    • Incidental hosts for serovar pomona, suffering from abortion and renal disease
    • Chronic leptospirosis may cause an immune-mediated anterior uveitis

• • Pigs
    • The rodent-adapted serovars icterohaemorrhagica and copenhagenii cause acute disease in pigs
    • Severe disease in young pigs
    • Serovar pomona is the host-adapted species, and may be shed in the urine
    • Infections may cause abortions and stillbirths
    • Pigs are maintenance hosts for serovars tarassovi and bratislava, which may cause reproductive failure

• • Dogs and cats
    • Serovars canicola and icterohaemorrhagica cause leptospirosis in dogs, but are vaccinated against
    • Serovars pomona and grippotyphosa are becoming important
    • The host-adapted serovar canicolar causes acute renal failure in puppies; a chronic uraemic syndrome may follow
    • Incidental infections with serovar icterohaemorrhagica or copenhagenii cause renal failure
    • L. icterohaemorrhagiae may cause hepatic jaundice
    • Serovar bratislava causes abortion and infertility in dogs, which may be the maintenance host
    • Infections uncommon in cats

Borrelia

• Longer, wider, helical spirochaetes with a linear chromosome and linear and circular plasmids
• Obligate parasites transmitted by arthropod vectors
• Cause systemic infections in many animals and humans
• Slow growth in specialised culture media

• Lyme disease
  • Caused by Borrelia burgdorferi
  • Reported in humans, dogs, horses, cattle, sheep
  • Ticks are the vector, which acquire the infection from small rodents, the reservoir hosts
  • Ticks transmit the infection to large mammals such as deer and sheep
  • Ixodes ricinus is the most common tick vector in Europe
  • Pathogenesis
    • Virulence of the borreliae requires a change in expression of an outer membrane protein following ingestion of blood by the tick
    • Borreliae multiply in the blood stream of susceptible hosts and disseminate throughout the body
    • Localisation in joints, brain, nerves, eyes and heart can occur
    • The associated lesions may be in part caused by the host immune response
  • CLinical signs
    • May be subclinical in endemic areas
    • Clinical manifestation depends on the site of localisation of organisms
    • Disease in dogs may cause fever, lethargy, arthritis, cardiac, renal or neurological disturbance
    • Horses suffer similar clinical signs but also lameness, uveitis, nephritis, hepatitis and encephalitis
    • Cattle and sheep may suffer from lameness
  • Diagnosis
    • Laboratory confirmation difficult due to low numbers of organisms and fastidious growth requirements
    • History of exposure to ticks in an endemic region and clinical signs
    • Rising antibody titre to Borrelia burgdorferi detected by ELISA
    • Immunofluorescence
    • Culture in Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly medium for 6 weeks under microaerophilic conditions
    • PCR
  • Treatment and control
    • Amoxycillin and oxytetracycline in the acute phase; prolonged treatment in the chronic phase
    • Tick control and removal
    • Vaccines including whole cell bacterins and recombinant subunit vaccines available for dogs

Avian spirochaetosis

• Caused by Borrelia anserina
• Acute, endemic disease of birds in tropical and subtropical regions
• Chickens, turkeys, pheasants, ducks and geese susceptible
• Transmitted by soft ticks of the Argas family, but also via contact with infected material such as blood and tissues
• Transmitted transovarially and trans-stadially via the tick population
• Outbreaks during peak tick activity during warm, humid conditions
• Fever, anaemia and wight loss occurs, with development of paralysis later
• Immunity is serotype specific
• Diagnosis using dark-field microscopy of buffy coat smears or immunodluorescence of blood or tissues
• Giemsa-stained smears and silver impregnation of tissues
• Isolation of borreliae by inoculation of embryonated eggs or chicks
• Antibiotic treatment
• Inactivated vaccines available

Brachyspira and Serpulina

• Anaerobic, intestinal spirochaetes, found in normal and diseased pigs
• Enterophogens of pigs
• B. hyodysenteriae, B. pilosicoli, B. innocens, Serpulina intermedia and S. murdochii occur in pigs
• Carrier pigs shed B. hyodysenteriae for up to 3 months, acting as a source of infection for healthy pigs
• Demonstrated in stained faecal smears or silver-stained histopathology sections
• Cultured anaerobically on selective blood agar
• Spirochaetes differentiated by pattern of haemolysis on blood agar as well as molecular techniques

• Pathogenesis
  • Motility in mucous allows colonisation of pig intestine
  • Haemolytic and cytotoxic activiity important for virulence
  • Attachment of B. pilosicoli to epithelial cells of colonic mucosa disrupts their function and leads to their shedding and oedema

• Clinical infections
  • B. hyodysenteriae causes swine dysentery
  • B. pilosicoli causes porcine intestinal spirochaetosis
  • Infection is acquired via contaminated faeces
  • Disease spreads slowly through the herd
  • Dogs, rats, mice and flies may act as transport hosts
  • B. hyodysenteriae survives several weeks in moist faeces

• Clinical signs
  • B. hyodysenteriae causes dysentry in weaned pigs 6-12 weeks old; pigs lose condition and become emaciated; appetite is decreased; large amount of mucous may be present in the faeces; low mortality; poor feed conversion ratio
  • B. pilosicoli causes less severe signs than swine dysentry; reduced feed conversion rates occur

• Diagnosis
  • History, clinical signs and gross pathology
  • Anaerobic culture on blood agar with added antibiotics for at least 3 days
  • B. hyodysenteriae causes complete haemolysis whereas other spirochaetes cause partial haemolysis
  • Immunofluorescence, DNA probes and biochemical tests
  • Serology using ELISA can be used on a herd basis
  • PCR

Brachyspira hyodysenteriae