Determination of seroprevalance of leptospira serotypes in Urmia equine

Leptospira spp is the cause of leptospirosis in human and livestocks. The global reports on increasing the leptospiral infection indicate the importance of disease among animals. This study demonstrates the seroprovalance of leptospiral antibodies in Urmia equine. The sera from 138 horses and mules were prepared. Microscopic agglutination test was carried out using live antigens representing grippotyphosa, icterrohaemoragia, canicula, hardjo, ballum, pomona and stralis. Overall, 12.3% including 11.1% males and 12.9% females had positive to the leptospiral serovars. Among horses, 16.3% including 16% stallions and 16.4% mares and mules 6.9% including 5% males and 7.9% females had positive to leptospira spp. The differences were not significant. Among seropositives, harjo was 41.2%, grippotyphosa 29.4%, icterohaemorrhagiae 23.5% and canicola 11.8%. The titer of 1:100 for hargo was 27.8%, grippotyphosa 16.7% and icterohaemorrhagiae 22.2% and titer 1:200 for each of harjo, grippotyphosa and canicola was 11.1%. Seropositive animals with one and two serovars were 94.1% and 5.9%, respectively. Age percentages in seropositive animals with 1-6, 7-12 and 13-18 years old were 17.7%, 64.6% and 17.7%, respectively, which were not significantly different. There was no significant difference between serovar's distribution among equines. In conclusion the leptospiral infection is confirmed in Urmia equines in that the most serovars with titer 1/100 are harjo, grippotyphosa and icterhemorrhagia. There was no species, ages and gender difference in leptospiral infection in equine. In order to achieve the optimal public health standard and healthy equines vaccination of equine to leptospiral serovars, control of the rodents and hygienic methods will be considered the emerging practices.