Prevalence of antibodies of Leptospira serovars in beef cattle in central Queensland.
OBJECTIVE
To obtain up-to-date data on the prevalence of antibodies to Leptospira serovars in central Queensland beef herds preliminary to assessing their role in bovine subfertility and the role of cattle as a zoonotic reservoir.


METHODS
Sera from 2857 female cattle in 68 central Queensland beef herds were tested for antibodies to 14 Leptospira serovars using the microscopic agglutination test. Vaccination use and age of cattle were collected to enable the calculation of crude and age-stratified seroprevalences.


RESULTS
The most commonly detected antibodies were to serovars hardjo (15.8% crude seroprevalence), tarassovi (13.9%), pomona (4.0%) and szwajizak (2.2%). Vaccinates were omitted from the hardjo and pomona seroprevalence data. The seroprevalence for hardjo and pomona tended to increase with age of the animals.


CONCLUSIONS
These results are broadly similar to those of previous serological surveys. The data suggest that serovars other than hardjo, pomona and tarassovi, are unlikely to have a significant role in bovine subfertility and that cattle are unlikely to be a source of human infection with them in central Queensland.
Black
P F
PF
Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane, GPO Box 46, Brisbane, Queensland 4105.
Corney
B G
BG
Smythe
L D
LD
Dohnt
M F
MF
Norris
M A
MA
Symonds
M L
ML
D000372:Agglutination Tests / Q000662:veterinary; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D007919:Leptospira / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D011793:Queensland / Q000453:epidemiology; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014611:Vaccination / Q000662:veterinary
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines