Experimentally Induced Predator Chain Transmission of Leptospira grippotyphosa from Rodents to Wild Marsupialia and Carnivora

Abstract

SUMMARY Food-chain transmission of leptospires was accomplished in wild marsupialia and carnivora by feeding them mice in either the leptospiremic or the leptospiruric stage of infection. Infections were demonstrated in 2 of 7 opossums ( Didelphis marsupialis ), 3 of 8 skunks ( Mephitis mephitis ), and 2 of 10 red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ); 16 raccoons ( Procyon lotor ) could not be infected. The transmission may indicate that opossums, skunks, and foxes are members of a biologic system important in the nidality of leptospirosis, and that the predator-prey system may be a mechanism in overwintering and transfer of the organism from a declining population of immune rodents in late fall and winter to a susceptible new rodent population the next spring.