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Equine leptospirosis in Croatia - occurrence of subclinical infections and abortions

Clinical leptospirosis in horses has been primarily associated with abortion, stillbirth and equine recurrent uveitis. Severe septicaemia that includes fever, jaundice and anorexia, haematuria, renal and hepatic dysfunction, respiratory distress and pulmonary haemorrhage are rare. In order to obtain better insight into the occurrence of equine leptospirosis in Croatia a serosurvey was performed using microscopic agglutination test (MAT) among healthy and non-healthy horses. Non-healthy horses were represented by the mares that aborted. The aim of the study was to determine prevalence of Leptospira infection and related serovars as well as to point out the present clinical disease status of equine leptospirosis in Croatia. A total of 8059 horse sera samples of different breeds, age and sex were taken in 2011 from apparently healthy animals. In the same period 56 samples were taken from mares that aborted representing non-healthy animals. Out of 8059 sera samples of healthy horses 2999 (37.2) were considered seropositive. The highest seroprevalence for healthy horses were found for sv Bratislava in 1342 (44.8%) samples, sv Pomona 546 (18.2%) and sv Icterohaemorrhagiae 448 (14.9%). Out of 56 sera samples of mares that aborted, representing non-healthy horses, 37 (66.1%) were considered seropositive. The highest seroprevalence for mares that aborted were found for sv Bratislava in 16 (43.2%) sera samples, sv Pomona 11 (29.7%) and sv Icterohaemorrhagiae 4 (10.8%). Results showed that horses in Croatia are commonly exposed to Leptospira infections. Regarding clinical disease status a majority of subclinical infections and minority of abortions, as only clinically apparent form of leptospirosis, is currently present in Croatia irrespective to the level of agglutinating antibody titres.

leptospira; equine leptospirosis; seroprevalence; microscopic agglutination test

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