Leptospira Serogroup Hebdomadis Infection as an Australian Zoonosis

Abstract

Two cases of leptospirosis due to infection with a member of the Hebdomadis serogroup are described in farm workers on a Victorian dairy farm. The source of infection appeared to be the milking herd which had elevated serum antibody titres against a member of the Hebdomadis serogroup. Agglutinin-absorption testing of one patient's serum indicated that the infecting serovar was hardjo. A survey of 1,144 cattle entering abattoirs throughout the State indicated that 44.3% of these animals showed serological evidence of past or present infection with leptospira of the Hebdomadis serogroup and the potential risk for people with occupational contact with cattle is emphasised. The importance of considering leptospirosis in the differential diagnosis of all patients with influenza-like symptoms or pyrexia of unknown origin and having occupational contact with animals, especially cattle, is discussed.

Risk factors associated with the seroprevalence of leptospirosis among students at the veterinary school of Zaragoza University

“…Milk may be infected or contaminated by infected urine (Andre‐Fontaine and others 1985). In Europe, cattle have a seroprevalence ranging from 15 to 42 per cent but higher seroprevalences have been recorded in other countries, such as Australia, 44 per cent, New Zealand, 60 per cent, India, 68 per cent, and Kenya, 41 per cent (Milner and others 1980, Broughton 1981, Schomberg 1981, Schomberg and others 1982, Cacciapuoti and others 1982, 1994). Although sick or subclinically infected domestic animals are considered to be the most important source of infection for people, this study has shown that frequent contact with animal traders was associated with a higher prevalence of leptospiral infection, although no reference to the source of infection was found.…”

Serological and Molecular evidence of pathogenic Leptospira species in cattle from slaughterhouses in Veracruz State, Mexico

“…In the period from 1975 to 2020, 44 studies have been recorded in 12 Countries, demonstrating the presence of six pathogenic species and 27 serovars [4,7,13,14,17,18,19,20,23,26,29] (TABLE I). The prevalence fluctuate between 3.8-85% with an average of 31.1% in 9 Countries of the Nearctic Region where L. interrogans, L. borgpetersenii and L. kirschneri were reported; in contrast, in the Neotropical Region the prevalence fluctuate between 2.7-79.8% with an average of 36.4% in 10 Countries with six species detected (L. interrogans, L. borgpetersenii, L. santarosai, L. kirschneri, L. noguchii, and L. alstonii), Likewise, L. interrogans and L. borgpetersenii and L. kirschneri are circulate in both Zoogeographic Regions [30,31,33,34,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,50] (TABLE I). It is necessary to highlight that, during the aforementioned period, in Mexico, only a single study has been carried out in this type of animal, in the State of Guerrero, in which 380 animals were sampled, detecting anti-Leptospira antibodies against two Leptospira species (L. interrogans and L. borgspetersenii) and four serovars (Australis, Ballum, Bataviae, and Grippotyphosa) (TABLE I) [8].…”

Evaluation of a monoclonal antibody–based dot-blot ELISA for detection of Leptospira spp in bovine urine samples

“…Examples of leptospires that adapt to the hosts and cause those animals to become maintenance hosts are Leptospira interrogans serovar hardjo (bovine), L interrogans serovar bratislava (swine), and L interrogans serovar australis (ovine). [6][7][8][9][10][11] Certain leptospires, such as L interrogans serovar pomona and L interrogans serovar icterohaemorrhagiae, are not host-adapted to cattle and pigs and cause illness in these animals accompanied by signs of severe clinical disease that sometimes results in death. [10][11][12] Host-adapted serovars have not been implicated in infections in humans, but there are variations in virulence among the serovars that infect humans.…”