Swine leptospirosis: Serological prevalence inproducing establishments in Argentina Republic

Objective. To detect the presence of antibodies to leptospira sp in pigs that didn’t show clinical symptoms, of swine production farms located throughout Argentina. Materials and methods. The location of farms and samples were chosen in proportion to those recorded in each province covering the whole country. The number of farms studied was 1,524, with 19,872 serum samples. This study takes into consideration areas identified by provinces, municipalities and properties. In the first phase 3,631 sera were processed and analyzed by MAT (microscopic agglutination test). Results. The 30% of the samples tested were positive for the screening test (MAT). Most of these samples presented coagglutinins for two or three serovars. In the titration of sera, the percentage of positives was the same, the most prevalent serovars were Icterohaemorrhagiae and Castellonis. The 90% of the samples had a final titer of 1:200. Conclusions. The existence of positive sera in all provinces indicates the contact of animals with leptospira throughout the country.