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Occurrence of antibodies against Leptospira spp. in sport and leisure horses in Croatia

Horse population in Croatia could be divided into two different groups regarding management practise. First group consists of free-range population of horses bred for meat production and second group of sport and leisure horses. We report about seroepidemiology of leptospirosis in sport and leisure horses in Croatia comparing obtained results with those of previous investigations. In the year 2008, sera of 1690 horses were collected and tested by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) for antibodies against 12 Leptospira spp. serovars: Grippotyphosa, Sejroe, Australis, Pomona, Canicola, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Tarassovi, Saxkoebing, Ballum, Bataviae, Poi and Hardjo. Out of 1690 sera, leptospira antibodies for one or more serovars were found in 388 sera (22.96%). The most commonly found serovars were Australis, Grippotyphosa, Saxkoebing, Sejroe and Pomona. In evaluation of results well known cross-reactivity and paradoxical reaction between Leptospira serovars were taken into account. Thus, the identification of the presumptive infecting serovar was disabled due to presence of co-agglutinins against other serovars in 152 samples. Results showed that seroepidemiology of leptospirosis in sport and leisure horses seem to be the same or with small discursion compared to previous investigations in Croatia and Europe. The frequency of presumptive infecting serovars has slightly changed, but serovar Australis is still the main cause of leptospirosis in horses. Results suggest that horse could be one of the maintaining hosts for serovar Australis. Correlation with previous results of seroepidemiology and isolation of Leptospira from small mammals and another wild and domestic species in Croatia, confirm that horses are exposed to different Leptospira serovars depending on breeding and management practise.

seroepidemiology; leptospira; horses; Croatia

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