Forty-two of 46 sera (91%) from turtles (Pseudenzys scripta-elegans) in Georgia had microscopic agglutination titers of 200 or greater to Leptospira serotype tarassovi. Leptospires were isolated from eight of ten hamsters (80%) inoculated with surface water collected from the settling ponds of the untreated sewage disposal system in which the turtles lived. Leptospires were also isolated from 12 of 20 hamsters (60%) inoculated with turtle kidney suspensions and six of 20 hamsters (30%) inoculated with turtle cloacal suspension. Hamster brain appeared to be the best tissue for recovering leptospires since 24 of the 41 isolates (59%) from the 26 culture-positive hamsters were from the brain and 17 (41%) were from the kidney. Six of the 41 isolates from hamsters that had been injected with surface water and turtle kidney and cloacal tissue were identified as being identical to serotype tarassovi.

In Trinidad, six Leptospira isolates were made from 957 febrile patients between 1968 amd 1972. In addition, CF antibodies were detected in 6-6% of febrile patients and human survey sera collected during this period. In 1972 alone, 10-4% (38/363) of sera examined had CF titres consistent with positive exposure to the disease. Grenada does not report leptospirosis, but the disease is common in mongooses in both Trinidad and Grenada. Serogroups Icterohaemorrhagiae, Pomona and Canicola are present in Grenada with 35-2% of mongooses examined being seropositive. Five Canicola strains of Leptospira were isolated from mongooses in Trinidad and serological studies showed that this was the most common serogroup from mongooses on the island. A total of 31 strains recorded from at least seven different serogroups and eight named serotypes have been isolated from humans, rats and mongooses in Trinidad. Human leptospirosis is probably more common in the Caribbean than the medical records indicate.

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