Clinical, serological and echocardiographic examination of healthy field dogs before and after vaccination with a commercial tetravalent leptospirosis vaccine

Abstract

BackgroundLeptospirosis is a re-emerging bacterial zoonosis caused by spirochetes of the genus Leptospira. Severe disease has been reported in dogs in Europe despite vaccination with bivalent Leptospira vaccines. Recently, a tetravalent canine Leptospira vaccine (Nobivac® L4) was licenced in Europe. The goal of this study was to investigate clinical signs, microscopic agglutination test (MAT) titres, haematology, blood biochemistry, cardiac (c) Troponin I levels and echocardiography before and after vaccination with this tetravalent vaccine. Forty-eight healthy dogs were prospectively enrolled and vaccinated twice, 3–4 weeks apart (T0 and T1). Before vaccination (T0) and 16–31 days after the second vaccination (T2), MAT (n = 48), haematology (n = 48), blood biochemistry (n = 36) and cTroponin I measurements (n = 29) were performed, and MAT was repeated 347–413 days after the second vaccination (T3, n = 44). Echocardiography was performed before the first and second vaccination (T0 and T1, n = 24).ResultsMild and transient clinical signs within 5 days following the first and second vaccination occurred in 23% and 10% of the dogs, respectively. Before the first vaccination (T0), all dogs showed negative MAT titres for the tested serovars except for Canicola (50% with titres 100–400). At T2, positive MAT titres to the serovars Canicola (100%), Australis (89%), Grippotyphosa (86%), Bratislava (60%), Autumnalis (58%), Copenhageni (42%), Pomona (12%), Pyrogenes (8%) and Icterohaemorrhagiae (2%) were found. Median to high titres (≥ 400) were most common to the serovar Canicola (92%) and less common to the serovars Australis (41%), Grippotyphosa (21%), Bratislava (12%), Autumnalis (4%), Pyrogenes (4%) and Pomona (2%). At T3, positive MAT titres (titre range: 100–400) were found in 2–18% of the dogs to serovars of the vaccine serogroups and in 2–18% of the dogs to the non-vaccine serovars Pomona, Autumnalis, Pyrogenes and Ballum. Haematology, blood biochemistry, cTroponin I levels and echocardiography results did not change significantly following vaccination.ConclusionsClinical signs following vaccination with Nobivac® L4 were transient and mild in all cases. Seroconversion differed considerably among individual dogs and among the vaccine serogroups.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-017-1056-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Lipidomic analysis of immune activation in equine leptospirosis and Leptospira-vaccinated horses

“…To further evaluate alterations in the serum lipidome during immune activation we took advantage of the opportunity to compare the serum lipidome of horses with active leptospirosis infection [ 1 , 4 , 39 ] and horses vaccinated with a commercial bacterin [ 40 , 41 ]. Our results show that serum levels of cyclic phosphatidic acids (cPA), diacylglycerols, and hydroperoxide oxidation products of choline plasmalogens were elevated in both vaccinated and naturally infected horses.…”

SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Dogs and Cats from Southern Germany and Northern Italy during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…As a negative control, a serum sample from a specified pathogen-free (SPF) cat collected in 2017 was used (TVB ZH095/15, [ 33 ]). Sera submitted to the diagnostic laboratory from 24 Swiss cats for routine diagnostic purposes (remaining material) between 2 October 2017 and 4 January 2020 [ 30 ], and leftovers from sera from 24 dogs (TVB 72/11 and TVB 042/15 [ 34 ]) collected in 2013 and 2014, were run as pre-COVID-19 samples. The positive optical density (OD) cut-off value was calculated at six-fold standard deviations above the mean value of reactivity of all serum samples from the pre-COVID-19 cohort for cats [ 35 ].…”

Orchitis and balanoposthitis in a dog with Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola in Southern California

“…A review of the literature does not support that rodents can be a reservoir host for serovar Canicola. Interestingly, a recent study evaluating MAT titres in healthy dogs before and after vaccination with a tetravalent vaccine found that half of the dogs showed positive MAT titres at study enrolment for the serovar Canicola, although vaccines containing this serovar had been administered to the dogs up to 1745 days prior to sampling 41. The study could not conclude whether the positive MAT titres to Canicola were due to previous vaccination or natural exposure to this serovar.…”