Abstract

BETANCUR HURTADO, César; ORREGO URIBE, Alberto  and  GONZALEZ TOUS, Marco. Seroepidemiology of Leptospirosis in Cattle with Reproductive Disorders from the Municipality of Montería, Colombia. Rev. Med. Vet. [online]. 2013, n.26, pp.47-55. ISSN 0122-9354.

The paper presents the results of a descriptive study that determined the prevalence of leptospirosis in cattle with reproductive disorders in rural areas in Montería, Colombia. Serum samples were collected from 26 bulls and 137 cows from 28 farms with a history of reproductive problems, and analyzed by microscopic agglutination test in order to detect antibodies against Leptospira. Antigens from serovars pomona, hardjo, canicola, grippotyphosa and icterohaemorrhagiae were used. Forty-one percent (41%) of the sera tested positive for Leptospira at cut-off point 1:20. Prevalent serovars were grippotyphosa (29.85%) hardjo and icterohaemorrhagiae (20.8 and 16.41%). A chi-square test (x²) was performed to establish the relationship between seropositivity to Leptospira and the variables of gender, age, history of abortions and repetition of services of each animal, as well as the sampling location and production system of the farms. Seropositivity to Leptospira was 26.86% and 29.85% in the age groups of 3 to 4 years and 5 to 6 years, and of 43.2% in bovine > 7 years. Seroprevalence in aborted and non-aborted cows was similar (35 and 34%); likewise, seropositivity in cows with and without repetition of services was of 34 and 35%, respectively. Forty-one point seven percent (41.7%) of farms with a meat production system and 58.2% of farms with dual-purpose tested positive for different serovars. No dependency was found between seropositivity to Leptospira and the aforementioned variables (p > 0,05). Results indicate a high seroprevalence of leptospirosis in bovines with reproductive disorders in Montería.

Keywords : Epidemiology; infertility; Leptospira; reproduction.

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