Indian Journal of Veterinary Research (The)

The transmission cycle of leptospirosis can involve a broad range of mammalian species present in a particular geographical region. However, the factors that plays behind the emergence and resurgence of the disease after a time lag has remained matter of research. In prevailing background seropositivity to 11 Leptospira serogroups in cattle and goat population using Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) were compared during two time periods during 2003–05 and 2013–14. In cattle, overall seropositivity decreased from 34% in 2003–05 to 11.6% during 2013–14. The seropositivity among goats showed a marginal decrease from 29% in 2003–05 to 26.6% in 2013–14. There was significant change in trend of seroprevalence from predominant serogroup Grippotyphosa in 2003–05 to Icterohemorrhagiae in 2013–14 in cattle population. Therefore, long term surveillance and vaccination strategies should be focused more on animal reservoirs or carriers of that particular region to prevent epidemics in humans by breaking the transmission chain.