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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Infectious Bacterial Diseases Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #95146
Title: IDENTIFICATION OF SEROGROUP BATAVIAE LEPTOSPIRA STRAIN ISOLATED FROM AN OX IN ZIMBABWE

Author
item FERESU, SARA - UNIV. OF ZIMBABWE
item Bolin, Carole
item VAN DE KEMP, HERMAN - ROYAL TROP. INST., NETH.
item KORVER, HANS - RTI, THE NETHERLANDS

Submitted to: Zentralblatt Fur Bacteriologie
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/9/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Leptospirosis is a disease of animals and man with a worldwide distribution and is caused by infection with one of the many types of Leptospira. Leptospirosis is an important cause of abortion, stillbirth, and reproductive inefficiency in cattle. Within each geographical area, a given type of Leptospira will have one or more wild or domestic animal species that serves as a reservoir host for the infection. These reservoi hosts shed the bacteria in high concentrations in their urine and serve as reservoirs of infection for other animals and human beings. Because of the differences in the epidemiology of this disease throughout the world, it is important that types prevalent within each country be determined. In this study, an isolate of Leptospira from Zimbabwe was characterized and found to alike in some ways and different in others from other isolates of this type. Identification and use of local isolates in diagnostic tests and vaccines is important in the control of this economically important diseas of livestock.

Technical Abstract: A strain belonging to the genus Leptospira serogroup Bataviae, isolated from an ox at slaughter in Zimbabwe, was identified by using cross-agglutin absorption, monoclonal antibodies, restriction fragment length polymorphism, and polymerase chain reaction analyses. Results of both serological tests showed that the isolate (strain SBF 37) was antigenically yvery similar to reference strain Paidjan and, therefore, belongs to serova paidjan. Strain SBF 37 was, however, genetically different from strain Paidjan since their chromosomal DNA had different restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns, and as the Zimbabwe serovar paidjin isolate was identified as belonging to Leptospira kirschneri, while the reference strain for the serovar, strain Paidjin, belonged to a species other than L. kirschneri as determined by the polymerase chain reaction.