Ancestral African Bats Brought Their Cargo of Pathogenic Leptospira to Madagascar under Cover of Colonization Events

Madagascar is home to an extraordinary diversity of endemic mammals hosting several zoonotic pathogens. Although the African origin Malagasy has been addressed for a number volant and terrestrial taxa, their hosted pathogens currently unknown. Using bats Leptospira infections as model system, we tested whether mammal hosts acquired these on island following colonization events, or alternatively brought bacteria from continental Africa. We first described genetic pathogenic infecting Mozambique then through analyses molecular variance (AMOVA) by Mozambique, Comoros structured geography host phylogeny. This study reveals wide lineages shed Mozambique. AMOVA strongly supports that sequences obtained sampled in Madagascar, according bat Presented data show detected congeners Africa are imbedded within monophyletic clades, suggesting colonists have indeed originally crossed Channel while infected with Leptospira.