Seroprevalence of leptospirosis among suspected cattle in eastern part of India: a comparative study between rLipL32ELISA and MAT

Leptospirosis in cattle is a worldwide problem associated with abortion, agalactia, still birth and infertility resulting in major economic losses to dairy industry. There is lack of data regarding seroprevalence of bovine leptospirosis in eastern India. So, with the aim to investigate the prevalence of the disease in Odisha and West Bengal state of eastern India, a total of 350 cattle serum samples were collected with distinct geographical attributes having history of infertility, abortion, and haemogalactia. Serum samples weretested by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) using a battery of twelve Leptospira serovars as live antigen to detect the serovars present in the studied area. Further a recombinant protein (LipL32) based ELISA was carried out for comparative study. Overall seropositivity using MAT and rLipL32ELISA were found to be 50.85% and 56%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of rLipL32ELISA relative to MAT was calculated and found to be 100% and 89.53%, respectively. In the current study among the serovars, icterohaemorrhagiae was the most predominant serovar reported in this study. So to conclude, this study warrants further investigations in this area to establish the risk factors involved in disease transmission cycle.