Seroepidemiology of leptospirosis in horses from Santarém, Pará

Abstract Leptospirosis is an endemic zoonotic disease that is distributed worldwide, which has the potential to have health and economic impacts. Leptospira spp. is spiral-shaped and capable of infecting mammals, including horses, which may result in asymptomatic or clinical forms. Therefore, the current study aimed to analyze the frequency of anti-Leptospira antibodies in serum samples from horses from Santarém, Pará, Brazil. For that purpose, 88 blood samples from horses without a history of leptospirosis vaccination were serologically evaluated through the microscopic agglutination technique (MAT) with a 13 serovars, belonging to ten different serogroups. There were 58 samples that were seropositive (65.90%), which included 28 samples seropositive for Pyrogenes (48.3%), 24 for Autumnalis (41.4%), 18 for Icterohaemorrhagiae (31.0%), and 16 for Grippotyphosa (27.6%). Even without clinical suspicion of leptospirosis or a history of vaccination, the horses showed different frequency of seropositivity. Considering the well-known impact of leptospirosis in human and animal health, our results are important to establish preventive measures to reduce the economic loss in equine production as well as a reduction in public health risk.