Serological study of leptospirosis in slaughtered cows of Guilan province during 2023

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a multi-faceted global disease, which causes great economic and health losses to the livestock and human population of our country each year. The northern provinces of Iran are among the rainy and humid regions of Iran, and the prevalence of waterborne diseases such as leptospirosis is high in these regions. In ruminants, cattle are more susceptible to leptospirosis than small ruminants. The purpose of this study was to determine the serological prevalence of leptospirosis in slaughtered cows in Guilan province using the standard microscopic agglutination test (MAT). For this purpose, 300 blood samples were collected from slaughtered cows in Guilan province during the spring and summer of 2023. After separating the serum and sending them to the leptospirosis research laboratory, all the samples were tested by MAT method using five serotypes of Leptospira Grippotyphosa, Pomona, Icterohaemorrhagiae, Canicola and Hardjo. The results of this study showed that 62 samples (20.66 percent) had anti-leptospiral antibodies against one of the above-mentioned 5 serotypes. The highest titer was related to Hardjo serotype with 37 samples (59.6 percent) and the lowest was related to Icterohaemorrhagiae serotype with 5 cases (8.06 percent). Titration of positive samples showed that 59 samples (86.8 percent) had a titer of 1:100 to 1:200 and 9 samples (13.2 percent) had a titer of 1:400. In conclusion, this study revealed that infection with L. interrogans is highly prevalent in slaughterhouse cows of Guilan province and the active presence of the cause of this disease in the province.

Keywords

• cattle
• guilan
• leptospirosis
• microagglutination
• serology.