Seroprevalence and molecular detection of leptospirosis among working dogs population (title pdf )

The aim of this study was to determine seroprevalence of leptospirosis among the working dogs population in Malaysia. Blood samples were obtained from five representative canine units, namely, Royal Malaysia Police, FELDA Security Police, Royal Malaysian Custom Department, Fire and Rescue Department and Prison Department in Malaysia. In total, 96 blood samples were collected. All the working dogs were clinically healthy during blood collection. Serum samples collected were examined by using Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) against 11 Leptospira serovars (icterohaemorrhagiae, canicola, Pomona, grippotyphosa, australis, bataviae, javanica, tarassovi, hebdomadis, lai and pyrogene) to investigate the seroprevalence of canine leptospirosis. Whole blood samples collected were examined by using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay. Primer targeting the 531 bp pathogenic specific and 331 bp genus-specific Leptospira genes was used. Out of 96 sera samples, three sera samples (3.1%) were tested positive for Leptospira javanica, L. australis and L. bataviae based on MAT at the antibody titre cut-off point at 1:80. There was no detection of leptospires nucleic acid (DNA) for all samples in PCR. Hence those three dogs tested positively by using MAT might serve as carriers for leptospiral. Working environment of the working dogs was believed as a source of leptospiral infection. Despite annual vaccination was performed, the working dogs are still risk of ongoing exposure to leptospires. Further investigation of seroprevalence in other group of dogs is of crucial importance in order to investigate the most common serovars presence in the dogs in Malaysia.

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