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Introduction: Bats are a diverse group of mammals that have unique features allowing them to act as reservoir hosts for several zoonotic pathogens such as Leptospira. Leptospires have been classified into pathogenic, intermediate, and saprophytic groups and more recently into clades P1, P2, S1, and S2, being all the most important pathogenic species related to leptospirosis included within the P1/pathogenic clade. Leptospira has been detected from bats in several regions worldwide; however, the diversity of leptospires harboured by bats is still unknown., Aim: The aim of the present study was to determine the genetic diversity of Leptospira spp. harboured by bats worldwide., Methods: A systematic review was conducted on four databases to retrieve studies in which Leptospira was detected from bats. All studies were screened to retrieve all available Leptospira spp. 16S rRNA sequences from the GenBank database and data regarding their origin. Sequences obtained were compared with each other and reference sequences of Leptospira species and analysed through phylogenetic analysis., Results: A total of 418 Leptospira spp. 16S rRNA sequences isolated from 55 bat species from 14 countries were retrieved from 15 selected manuscripts. From these, 417 sequences clustered within the P1/pathogenic group, and only one sequence clustered within the P2/intermediate group. Six major clades of P1/pathogenic Leptospira spp. were identified, three of them composed exclusively of sequences obtained from bats., Conclusion: We identified that bats harbour a great genetic diversity of Leptospira spp. that form part of the P1/pathogenic clade, some of which are closely related to leptospirosis-associated species. This finding contributes to the knowledge of the diversity of leptospires hosted by bats worldwide and reinforces the role of bats as reservoirs of P1/pathogenic Leptospira spp., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

COVID-19 is a zoonotic coronavirus disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Its fast spreading by aerosol transmission has made it a highly contagious disease, causing the most recent 2020 pandemic. Although it mainly affects the respiratory system, atypical forms of the disease have been described, including developing an undifferentiated febrile illness without respiratory symptoms, that can represent a diagnostic challenge, mainly in tropical areas where several zoonotic febrile diseases are circulating. Thus, despite the broad clinical spectrum of COVID-19, in the tropics, other zoonotic etiologies should always be considered as differential diagnoses. According to our case reports review, eight different zoonotic febrile diseases misdiagnosed as COVID-19 have been reported in the available scientific literature of four databases. These were only suspected due to the epidemiological history. Thus, making a complete and detailed clinical history of a febrile patient in the tropics is essential to suspect the etiology and request the necessary confirmatory tests. Therefore, COVID-19 must be included as a differential diagnosis of undifferentiated febrile illness in the tropics, but other zoonotic infectious diseases must not be ruled out., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose in relation to this work.