Leptospira spp. in horses in southern Brazil: Seroprevalence, infection risk factors, and influence on reproduction

Silva, Aleksandro S. Da; Jaguezeski, Antonise M.; Laber, Isadora Fabris; Laer, Ana Eucares von; Lovato, Luciane Teresinha; Silva, Marcio O. da; Moura, Anderson Barbosa de

doi:10.1016/j.cimid.2020.101552

Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The seroprevalence in Arabians (33.2%) is generally consistent with previous studies on mixed populations of healthy horses in northern Poland, indicating 20% [18] and 39.0% [17]. However, a much earlier study indicated seroprevalence as low as approximately 11% in healthy horses but much higher (up to 75%) when related to leptospirosis outbreaks on farms [19], which is consistent with studies from other countries [21][22][23].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

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Serological Survey of Leptospira Infection in Arabian Horses in Poland

Wasiński

Paschalis-Trela²,

Trela³

et al. 2021

Pathogens

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Leptospirosis is one of the most common zoonotic infections worldwide, including in most livestock, some companion animals, horses, wildlife, and humans. Epidemiological estimation of its prevalence in all species is difficult due to the variety of clinical presentations and challenges regarding laboratory diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to measure the seroprevalence of leptospiral infection in Arabian horses kept in the largest breeding farms in Poland, representing over 15% of the Polish Arabian horse population. Leptospira antibodies were detected by MAT (cut-off 1:100) in 33.2% of serum samples (204 of 615 animals) (CI 95%: 29.6–37.0%), most frequently reacting with the serovar Grippotyphosa, similar to previous reports in populations of randomly selected horses. These results indicated high Leptospira seropositivity, thus, although any form of clinical leptospirosis is rare, it may be postulated that the leptospiral exposure is widespread.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…It is generally considered that Leptospira seroprevalence is lower in temperate climate countries [25] and a seropositivity of 30-45% is expected for tropical regions [14,21]. However, recent data clearly indicate that high seroprevalence is not limited to tropical regions only.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serological Survey of Leptospira Infection in Arabian Horses in Poland

Wasiński

Paschalis-Trela²,

Trela³

et al. 2021

Pathogens

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“…The observed seroprevalence varied widely in previous research conducted in southern Brazil. In the state of Santa Catarina, Silva et al (2020) and Farias et al (2020) found 45.9% (273/595) and 45.4% (94/207) of horses were positive for anti-Leptospira antibodies. And in the state of Paraná, the seroprevalence of 75.8% (47/62) (Finger et al, 2014) were detected, while in RS, studies involving cart horses reported seroprevalences of 60% (75/125) in the city of Porto Alegre (Lasta et al, 2013) and 89.9% (107/119) in Pelotas (Dewes, 2017).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Occurrence of Leptospira spp. and factors associated with the infection in horses from a military contingent in the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

Bastiani

Lovato

Laer

et al. 2021

Braz. J. Vet. Res. Anim. Sci.

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The seroprevalence of Leptospira spp. and infection risk factors were investigated in horses from a military contingent in the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. A total of 446 horses were evaluated and categorized into 309 mares, 11 stallions, and 126 horses with an average age of three years. To determine seroprevalence, serum samples from all horses were submitted to the microscopic agglutination test against 12 serovars belonging to nine serogroups, usually circulating in equine populations. To investigate the possible risk factors of infection by Leptospira spp., questionnaires were applied in that military unit. The seroprevalence in the horses with an average age of 3 years, mares, and stallions were 57.94% (73/126), 54.05% (165/309), and 45.45% (5/11), respectively. The main risk factors identified were contact with different water sources, the presence of rodents, and contact with wild and domestic animals. The high seroprevalence of anti‑Leptospira spp. antibodies may be associated with the presence of these risk factors. Therefore, the exposure of horses to possible reservoirs of Leptospira spp. should be minimized. Also, the immunoprophylaxis protocol should be reviewed and a shorter interval between vaccinations adopted to control leptospirosis in this herd.

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“…It is largely agreed, however, that serum assays using MAT and various ELISA tests are inappropriate for diagnoses of intraocular leptospiral infections in an individual animal [17][18][19]45,194,195,307,[311][312][313][314][315][316]. Among other reasons, this can be explained by the fact that leptospiral infections are endemic in many regions and a high background level is present; thus, a large number of horses with healthy eyes display MAT titers [17,19,84,85,307,313,[315][316][317][318][319][320][321][322][323][324][325][326]. Therefore, as in human leptospiral uveitis [327], MATs using sera are not diagnostic of leptospiral uveitis when only serum is examined [17][18][19]45,307,308,314,328].…”

Section: Diagnostic Value Of Testing Serum Samples For Anti-leptospir...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious Uveitis in Horses and New Insights in Its Leptospiral Biofilm-Related Pathogenesis

2022

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Uveitis is a sight-threatening eye disease in equids known worldwide that leads to considerable pain and suffering. By far the most common type of uveitis in Germany and neighboring countries is classical equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), which is caused by chronic intraocular leptospiral infection and is the main cause of infectious uveitis in horses. Other infectious causes are extremely rare and are usually clinically distinguishable from ERU. ERU can be treated very effectively by vitreous cavity lavage (vitrectomy). For proper indications of this demanding surgery, it is necessary to differentiate ERU from other types of uveitis in which vitrectomy is not helpful. This can be conducted on the basis of anamnesis in combination with ophthalmologic findings and by aqueous humor examination. During vitrectomy, vitreous material is obtained. These vitreous samples have historically been used for numerous etiologic studies. In this way, a chronic intraocular leptospiral infection has been shown to be the cause of typical ERU and, among other findings, ERU has also been recognized as a biofilm infection, providing new insights into the pathogenesis of ERU and explaining some thus far unexplainable phenomena of ERU. ERU may not only have transmissible aspects to some types of uveitis in humans, but may also serve as a model for a spontaneously occurring biofilm infection. Vitreous material obtained during therapeutically indicated vitrectomy can be used for further studies on in vivo biofilm formation, biofilm composition and possible therapeutic approaches.

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Leptospira spp. in horses in southern Brazil: Seroprevalence, infection risk factors, and influence on reproduction

Cited by 12 publications

References 34 publications

Serological Survey of Leptospira Infection in Arabian Horses in Poland

Serological Survey of Leptospira Infection in Arabian Horses in Poland

Occurrence of Leptospira spp. and factors associated with the infection in horses from a military contingent in the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

Infectious Uveitis in Horses and New Insights in Its Leptospiral Biofilm-Related Pathogenesis

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