Seroepidemiology of canine leptospirosis by iELISA and MAT

Abstract

Aim: The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of antibodies against leptospira using a genus specific andserovar specific antigen by indirect ELISA(iELISA) and Microscopic Agglutination test (MAT), respectively.Materials and Methods: 300 sera samples were collected from dogs, from Pondicherry, suspected to be suffering fromCanine leptospirosis and with no history of vaccination. Using the outer membrane proteins (OMP's) of Leptospirainterrogans serovar canicola as antigen the leptospiral antibodies were detected by iELISAand compared with the MATusingfive commonly infecting serovars (canicola, icterohaemorrhaegiae, grippotyphosa, pomona, australis) as antigens.Statistical analysis of the data was carried out using chi-square test.Result: Out of 300 sera samples, 159 (53 %) and 99 (33 %) sera samples were found to be positive for leptospiral antibodies byiELISAand MAT, respectively. The iELISAemployed in this study revealed a very high sensitivity of 94.94 % in comparisonwith the MAT (59.11 %). However, iELISA showed less specificity (67.66 %) when compared to MAT (96.45 %). By chisquaretest, a significant difference (P<0.001) was obtained between the results from iELISAand MAT.Conclusion: The present study revealed that the iELISA was found to be highly sensitive, rapid and easy to perform incomparison with MATfor the detection of canine anti-leptospiral antibodies.

Keywords

• Canine leptospirosis
• outer membrane protein (OMP)
• iELISA
• Microscopic Agglutination test (MAT).