Leptospira and Bats: Story of an Emerging Friendship

A growing number of recent studies have highlighted bats as a reservoir for Leptospira bacteria, pointing out the potential role of bats in the epidemiology of the most widespread zoonotic disease in the world [1].Because leptospirosis is a largely neglected disease, a number of unanswered questions remain about the ecology and evolution of Leptospira, especially those associated with bats.Here we summarize what has been recently learned about this emerging but enigmatic host-pathogen association.We show how this system can provide exciting new opportunities to obtain insights into the evolutionary ecology of bat-borne pathogens and propose future directions to disentangle the role of bats in human leptospirosis.