engleski

Canine leptospirosis in Croatia - alteration of infective serovars

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease occurring worldwide in many animal species and humans. It is caused by pathogenic members of the Leptospira genus. Due to diversity of agglutinins on the outer membrane, protection provided by the current vaccines is restricted to serovars antigenically closely related to serovars used for vaccine production. Therefore, efficacy of the currently available vaccines is questionable. The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of presumptive infective serovars in dogs in Croatia. Out of 151 dog sera tested in this survey, 57 (37, 7%) were seropositive. Most prevalent infecting serovars in decreasing order were: Pomona, Grippotyphosa, Ictherohaemorrhagiae, Australis, Saxkoebing and Hardjo. Five out of six detected serovars are not included in currently used vaccines in Croatia. Due to obvious alteration in serovars causing disease, vaccines containing the most prevalent infective serovars would certainly be more efficient in prevention of canine leptospirosis.

leptospira; canine leptospirosis; seroprevalence; infective serovar

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