Immunization against Leptospira pomona

Authors: Webster WM, Reynolds BA
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 3, Issue 2, pp 47-59, Jun 1955
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep
Subject Terms: Bacterial, Biosecurity, Disease control/eradication, Epidemiology, Immune system/immunology, Zoonosis, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Public health
Article class: Scientific Article

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Abstract:

Leptospirosis is now recognized as a highly invasive, virulent, and often fatal disease of young animals, particularly calves, in which it follows a characteristic course with clinical symptoms of sudden fever accompanied by icterus and haemoglobinuria, with consequential anaemia, and a high mortality. Recovered animals are highly resistant to reinfection, and their blood usually shows a high and persistent agglutination-lysis titre against the appropriate leptospira strain. Another important feature from the epidemiological point of view is the fact that most clinically recovered animals pass through a more or less prolonged carrier phase during which the kidney tubules become colonized by the organisms which are excreted in the urine in enormous numbers and in viable form.

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