Departamento de Higiene Veterinária e Saúde Pública, Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, UNESP, Campus de Botucatu, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, s/n-Botucatu- Sao Paulo, CEP 18618.000, Brazil
Abstract:
We examined dams' paired serum samples and foetal kidneys (histopathologically and attempting leptospiral cultures) from 120 Brazilian Holstein abortions from 10 herds near Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1996. Leptospiras was isolated from 15 foetuses. The Leptospira interrogans serovar hardjo was obtained from four, pomona from three and wolffi from eight foetuses. Ten of these 15 foetuses showed a four-fold rise in titres between the day of abortion and the second samples taken 15 days later. Fifty-seven other foetuses had histologic evidence of leptospires; 27 of their dams (47%) had four-fold rises in titres. In total, 72 of 120 aborted foetuses had evidence of leptospiral infection.