Reference laboratory for leptospirosis - diagnostics and epidemiology

The Leptospirosis Consultative Laboratory carries out clarification, confirmation and typing tests using serological and molecular biological methods and is available for enquiries from medical practices, research institutions and the RKI. It maintains a leptospiral strain collection, carries out animal experiments and provides reference material for diagnostic purposes. Training courses are offered for testing facilities. This specialised service will also be offered to diagnostic laboratories, clinics and general practitioners in 2017. The collaboration with the ‘rodent-borne pathogens’ network (cooperation with the FLIshort forFriedrich Loeffler Institute) will continue to investigate the occurrence of leptospires in reservoir animals. As part of a doctoral thesis in collaboration with the FU Berlin, the occurrence of leptospires in cats is being investigated in order to better assess the risk of transmission to humans. In 2016, a project application was submitted as part of the ‘National Research Network for Zoonotic Infectious Diseases’. If this is approved, a doctoral student will carry out tenacity studies of leptospires in the environment, the occurrence in pathogen reservoirs and seroprevalence studies and risk factor analyses in human risk groups (in particular strawberry pickers). Furthermore, it is planned to establish an NGS methodology for the KL leptospira in 2017 in order to expand the diagnostic possibilities in the long term as well as to work on questions relating to metagenome and virulence factor analyses.