Seroepidemiological Studies on Leptospirosis among Bovines in an Organized farm

Abstract

A total of 677 serum samples were collected from cattle and buffaloes with different clinical conditions and suspected for leptospirosis included abortion, repeat breeding, jaundice, haemorrhagic mastitis and apparently healthy animals, from a private farm in Gujarat state. The serum samples were subjected to seroprevalence studies using MAT. The seropositivity was found to be 34.74 per cent in cattle and 54.14 per cent in buffaloes. Among the 12 serovars against which the serum samples were screened, only five serovars namely, australis, ballum, hardjo, hebdomadis and pomona were found to be prevalent among the cattle and buffaloes. Among the cattle breeds subjected in the present study, the risk of leptospirosis was more in exotic pure breeds (50.00 per cent), followed by indigenous pure breeds (34.38 per cent) and cross breeds (32.74 per cent). Amongst the three age groups studied, the risk of leptospirosis was more in the cattle of age group above seven years (55.88 per cent), followed by four to seven years (51.28 per cent) and below seven years (28.42 per cent). This study revealed more seropositivity in males (53.71 per cent) than in females (14.18 per cent). Among three breeds of buffaloes screened, the susceptibility to leptospirosis was found to be more in Murrah (58.25 per cent), followed by Pandhapuri (40.91 per cent) and Jaffrabadi (37.50 per cent). As regards the age of buffaloes, the seropositivity was found to be increasing with age group and results are very similar with the results observed in cattle. Among the buffaloes, the disease prevalence was observed more in males (57.89 per cent) than females (44.73 per cent).

Seroepidemiological pattern of leptospirosis in bovine of South Gujarat, India

“…Thus, age was significantly influencing the seropositivity (p≤0.05). These findings indicated that increasing age of cattle makes them more prone to leptospiral infection and supported the findings of Kocabiyik and Cetin (2004) who also opined that seropositivity markedly increase with age and Balakrishnan et al (2011) mentioned that seropositivity was comparatively higher in the cattle of above 4 years of age. Contrary to this, Agrawal et al (2005) studied the seroprevalence in cattle, buffaloes and goats and reported that the seropositivity among cattle of 6-8 year age was 10% which decreased to 3% at the age of above 9 years.…”

“…In the present study, the most prevalent serovar was Pomona (28.89%) as against earlier observations made by Balakrishnan et al [24] from this region who noted Serovar Hardjo to be most prevalent among cattle. In addition a number of serovars from time to time were reported from other states of India such as serovars Hardjo, Bataviae, Canicola, and Australis from West Bengal [13], Grippotyphosa, Pomona and ictrohemorhagiae from Andaman and Nicobar [22], Pomona, Hebdomandis, Medanensis, Hardjo, Andamana and Saxkoebing from Andhra Pradesh [26,27], Icterohaemorrhagiae and Grippotyphosa from Uttar Pradesh [28].…”

“…This could possibly be due to number of sample tested from male and female cattle and supported the observations of Ramin and Azizzadeh [25] and Shafighi et al [16] who too did not observed any sex bias in respect of seropositivity. Contrary to the above observations Mandal et al [13] and Balakrishnan et al [24] noted higher seropositivity in males than female cows/heifer. Sera were tested from the cattle of three age groups viz., below 1 year, 1-4 years and above 4 years.…”

“…Varma et al [22] and Agrawal et al [23] opined that indigenous breeds are more susceptible than crossbreds and our present observations supported their finding. Contrary to this Balakrishnan et al [24] noted that exotic pure breeds are more susceptible followed by indigenous pure breeds and cross breeds. They further mentioned that both HF and Jersey are equally susceptible to leptospirosis.…”

Carrier status and seroprevalence of leptospirosis in cattle of South Andaman

“…Generally, the crossbred cattle were more prone to any infection. Reports also suggested that leptospirosis was highly prevalent among the cross bred than the indigenous breeds (Balakrishnan et al., 2011). In contrary, (Agarwal et al, 2005) reported that the leptospirosis was more prevalent tin indigenous breeds than the cross bred.…”