Recurrent uveitis as a sequela to Leptospira infection is the most common infectious cause of blindness and impaired vision of horses worldwide. Leptospiral proteins expressed during prolonged survival in the eyes of horses with lesions of chronic uveitis were identified by screening a phage library of Leptospira interrogans DNA fragments with eye fluids from uveitic horses. Inserts of reactive...

OBJECTIVE To detect leptospiral antibodies by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) in north-east of Iran. METHODS This study was conducted to evaluate prevalence of human leptospiral infections by MAT, using six current reference strains of Leptospira interrogans in north-east of Iran. A total of 285 serum samples were collected from three north-east provinces of Iran, from December, 2009 to ...

BACKGROUND Although there is serologic evidence of exposure of cats to Leptospira spp., clinical disease is rarely reported in cats. OBJECTIVE To compare the seropositivity and urinary polymerase chain reaction (PCR) status for Leptospira spp. between healthy (H) cats and cats with kidney disease (KD), to investigate the serovars potentially involved, and to evaluate potential risk factors. ...

Leptospirosis is a global zoonotic disease. The causative agent, pathogenic Leptospira species, survives in the renal tubules of chronically infected hosts, from where leptospires are shed via urine into the environment. Infection of new hosts can present as an array of acute and chronic disease processes reflecting variations in host-pathogen interactions. The present study was designed to rep...

Leptospirosis is a worldwide distributed zoonosis, caused by pathogenic strains of spirochetes belonging to the genus Leptospira spp. So far, the only gold standard diagnostic method for this disease has been the Micro-Agglutination Test (MAT). The purpose of this study was to test whether a correlation exists between serological diagnosis by MAT and the presence of Leptospira spp. DNA traces i...

Leptospirosis is an important infectious disease of animals and humans caused by the pathogenicleptospires which are classified into one species of Leptospira interrogans containing over 212 serovars. Thisstudy was conducted to determine the prevalence of Leptospira-induced abortions in Tabriz (north-west ofIran) dairy herds and to determine the pathogenic Leptospira serovars responsible. From ...

Twenty-five clinical isolates of Leptospira spp were characterized by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and pulsed field gel-electrophoresis (PFGE) in comparison with 23 reference Leptospira serovars and with the saprophytic L. biflexa serovar Patoc. PFGE DNA profiling was more specific and reliable than MAT.

Leptospirosis is a disease with protean manifestations. We report a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in a pediatric patient following infection with Leptospira. Infecting Leptospira presumably belonged to serovar Copenhageni. The patient recovered completely. The possibility of GBS developing as a result of antecedent leptospiral infection should be kept in mind.

We describe a case of intermediate leptospirosis resulting from Leptospira licerasiae infection in a traveler returning to Japan from Brazil. Intermediate leptospirosis should be included in the differential diagnosis for travelers with fever returning from South America. This case highlights the need for strategies that detect pathogenic and intermediate Leptospira species.

A multi-serovar ELISA based on the outer membrane Lipoprotein L41 (LipL41) of pathogenic Leptospira was developed to increase sensitivity by using a single test antigen. A sensitivity of 99 % and a specifity of 92 % could be achieved. The established diagnostic polymerase chain reaction is also able to detect fast and reliably pathogenic Leptospira in different clinical samples.