Fine-scale prevalence and genetic diversity of urban small mammal-borne pathogenic Leptospira in Africa: A spatiotemporal survey within Cotonou, Benin.

"during the whole survey leptospira -positive small mammals were found at least once in 21 out of 37 (56 8%) households; this value increases to 21 out of 27 (77 8%) when one considers only the two most insalubrious and flood-prone districts agla (10 out of 14 71 4%) and ladji (11 out of 13 84 6%) 3 3 a total of 70 leptospira -positive samples (see table 2 ) could be successfully assigned to leptospira species through 16s rdna sequencing and 100% genetic similarity with genbank hits (reference sequences available in genbank under accession numbers om283612-om283615) ."

"CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflict of interest."

"This work is part of the activities conducted by the ‘observatory of small mammals as indicators of environmental changes in West Africa’ (ObsMICE) funded by the French Institute of Research for Sustainable Development (IRD). We are thankful to Serena Dool who accepted to help in shaping the English language of our manuscript. We are particularly grateful to all householders and local authorities for allowing us to set traps inside their homes and workplaces."