Seroprevalence of Leptospiral infection in dogs and rats in Ca Mau province

Abstract

Seroprevalence of Leptospira in dogs and rats in Ca Mau province was determined by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) with live antigens of 24 Leptospira serovars belonged to 18 serogroups.The studied result showed that 18.94% of the samples from dogs (50/264) and 29.13% of those from rats (37/127) were positive to at least 1 serogroup. There were 14 Leptospira serogroups circulating among the dogs and 15 Leptospira serogroups circulating among the rats. The most predominent Leptospira serogroups found from rats were Icterohaemorrhagiae (27.58%) and Canicola (19.67%), whereas Icterohaemorrhagiae (21.31%) and Canicola (14.75%) were popularly prevalent in dogs. The seropositive rate of the free range raising dogs (24.44%) was higher than that of the in-door raising dogs (13.18%). The seropositive prevalence of Leptospira in dogs and rats raising in salt water region was lower than those in fresh water region. 41/50 dogs (82%) were infected with 1 serogroup and 9/50 dogs (18%) were seropositive to multiple serogroups. 26/37 rats (70.27%) were infected with 1 serogroup and 11/37 rats (29.73%) were seropositive to multiple serogroups. Our study results proved that there was a high prevalence of Leptospira in rats and dogs in Ca Mau province, suggesting a potentially important role of dog and rat as reservoirs of pathogenic Leptospira, to be transmitted to both human and animals in the region.