Survey of risk factors for the prevalence of leptospiral infection in horses of Gonbad area

Leptospirosis is a world-wide zoonotic infection occurring in animals and humans. Rodents and wild animals are a major source of infection. Clinical signs in animals include fever, heamoglubinuria, jaundice, abortion, mastitis, reduced milk production, reproductive failure and death with periodic ophthalmia, abortion and stillbirths being among its important signs in horses. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors for the prevalence of leptospiral infection in horses of Gonbad area. This study was conducted on 200 horses in Gonbad area in Iran in order to determine seroprevalence of leptospiral infection. Sera were initially screened at dilution of 1:100 against 7 live serovars of Leptospira interrogans: Pomona, Canicola, Hardjo, Ballom, Icterohaemorrhagiae, AutomenalisandGrippotyphosausing themicroscopic agglutination test. The prevalence of leptospiral infection was 12% in horses. The majority of these infections were seen in horses that live in marsh and semi-marsh conditions and they accounted for 89% of positive samples. The highest number of reactors in horses (58.34%) wasdue toserovarCanicola and 33.34% of positive samples were seen in horses with many rodents living in their environment.66.67% of positive samples were seen in horses that were kept In moist and semi moist stables. The highest number of positive samples were seen in 3 to 6 years old animals, in other words prevalence of this disease is raised with increase of age. So according to the results, increasing age, living in marsh environment, moist stable presence of infected dogs and rodents, in environment are some of risks factors for prevalence of leptospiral infection