Seroprevalence of leptospirosis in animals and human beings in various regions of the country Srivastava S.K., Kumar A.A. Division of Bacteriology & Mycology Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar–243 122 (U.P.) Abstract Seroprevalence of leptospirosis was investigated in animals and human beings using sera collected from various states of the country during a period of 10 years beginning 1990. Most of these animals were reported to have suffered with fever, jaundice, abortions, repeat breeding etc. A total of 4992 sera collected from domestic animal (4348), wild animals (112) and human beings (532) were subjected to microscopic agglutination test, using a panel of 18 Leptospira antigens. Of the domestic animals sera tested, 2601 belonged to cattle and 15.8% of these were positive to various Leptospira serovars. Maximum positivity was detected in sera received from A.P. and Gujarat. A total of 414 buffalo sera from A.P. were subjected to the study and of these only 2.8% were positive, whereas none from TN (19) was positive. Similarly, a total of 271 goat, 551 sheep, 756 equine, 204 dog and 166 swine sera received from various states were tested and 14.3%, 15.2%, 9.9% and 9.0%, respectively, were positive. Most of the sheep, dog and swine sera belonged to A.P. Wild animal sera belonged to Sambhar, Cheetal, Tiger and Elephant and 14 (12.5%) were positive. A total of 78 (14.6%) human sera mostly belonging to Maharastra possessed diagnostic antibody levels. Leptospira serovars responsible for sero-positivity among most of the animals and man were identified as Icterohaemorrhagiae, Hardjo, Patoc, Australis, Canicola, Grippotyphosa, Pyrogenes, Pomona, Tarasovi and Ballum. The study indicated a high level of the prevalence of leptospirosis in animals and man warranting continuous investigations in order to suggest control strategies in the future. Top |