Seroepidemiological Analysis of Canine Leptospira Species Infections in Changchun, China

Yue Ding; Wenlong Zhang; Xufeng Xie; Shilei Zhang; Ning Song; Zhanbin Liu; Yongguo Cao

doi:10.3390/pathogens12070930

Seroepidemiological Analysis of Canine Leptospira Species Infections in Changchun, China

Pathogens. 2023 Jul 12;12(7):930. doi: 10.3390/pathogens12070930.

Authors

Yue Ding¹, Wenlong Zhang^{1

2}, Xufeng Xie¹, Shilei Zhang¹, Ning Song¹, Zhanbin Liu³, Yongguo Cao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Severe Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory for Zoonosis Research of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Zoonosis, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
² Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China.
³ Nanchang Police Dog Base of the Ministry of Public Security, Nanchang 330100, China.

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a significant worldwide zoonotic infectious disease that infects a wide range of animals and humans. Leptospira will colonize the animal's urinary and reproductive systems and be excreted with urine, potentially causing a wide range of infections. Dogs are an essential host for Leptospira, and epidemiological investigation studies of leptospirosis must be conducted to clarify the prevalence of leptospirosis and to reduce the risk of transmission to humans. This study aimed to investigate the seroepidemiology of leptospiral infection in dogs from Changchun, China, using Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT). A total of 1053 canine blood samples were collected and tested by MAT. The positive rate of MAT was approximately 19.1%. The main prevalent Leptospira serogroups were L. Icterohaemorrhagiae (8.1%), L. Canicola (7.6%), L. Australis (5.3%), L. Ballum (4.7%) and L. Pyrogenes (4.2%). No statistically significant difference among different varieties, sexes and sampling seasons (p > 0.05), except the age (p < 0.05). The seropositive rate was much higher in adult and aged dogs than in juvenile dogs. Our results showed the seroprevalence and the prevalent serogroup of Canine leptospirosis in Changchun, China.

Keywords: Changchun; China; canine leptospirosis; dog; seroepidemiology.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32172872, 32202889) for Y.C. and W.Z., the Scientific research project of the Education Department of Jilin Province (No. 46005) for W.Z. and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (BX20220131) for X.X.