Prevalence of antibodies to Leptospiral Serovars in farm ruminant animals in the Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea.

Abstract

A study on the prevalence of antibodies to leptospiral serovars in adult farm animals was carried out in-vaccinated (n = 47) and non-vaccinated (n = 47) cattle, and non-vaccinated sheep (n = 21) and goats(n = 39) in the Markham valley of Papua New Guinea (PNG) during the period between June and July 2006. Sera were separated from all the randomly selected animals and subjected to the Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) against a reference panel of 22 live leptospira serovars. A titer of (31:400) was considered as positive and accordingly 12.76% vaccinated as well as 17. 02% non-vaccinated cattle had positive titer to leptospira infection. This indicates leptospirosis is prevalent in PNG and vaccination has limited role in immune response. This study also confirms hardjo, tarassovi and topaz as the predominantly occurring leptospiral serovars in ruminant food animal populations with topaz as a serovar never previously recorded m PNG The seroresults of the tested sheep and goats showed none had positive titer (31:400) to leptospirosis. This indicates small ruminants currently may not be important
host of leptospirosis in PNG It may be concluded from the results of this study that leptospirosis is an important disease in ruminant farm animal herds in the Markham valley of PNG which needs attention for further study on it's zoonotic aspects and control in human and animal populations.