SEROPREVALENCE OF THE CANINE LEPTOSPIROSIS IN THREE MUNICIPALITIES OF THE TOLIMA DEPARTMENT-COLOMBIA

Objective. To determe leptospirosis seroprevalence and dominant serovars in canine population of three municipalities of Tolima department of Colombia. Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out (subjects being selected by sampling in 62 districts). Samples from 900 dogs during June, July and August 2007 were collected and processed using Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT). Five serovars: hardjo, pomona, grippotyphosa, canicola, icterohaemorrhagiae and bratislava were tested. The MAT was considered positive when 50% or more leptospiras were agglutinated with one or more serovars in a serum dilution of 1:100. Results. At least one serovar showed evidence of infection in 21.4 % of the canines. The most dominant serovars were grippotyphosa (82.4%) and pomona (8.2%). It was evident the decrease in the frequency of reactivity of canicola and icterohaemorrhagiae serovars (0.5 and 2.2% respectively). Co-agglutinations were presented in 4.3% canine sera samples. The sera-reactivity showed statistically significant differences when was compared for sex and age (p=0.038). Conclusions. These findings suggested that dogs are potential reservoirs of Leptospira in the three municipalities evaluated. It is necessary to conduct studies that permit the isolation and characterization of the serovars prevalent in endemic areas to guide preventive measures to avoid the risk of disease transmission to human.