A case of human Leptospira canicola infection in New Zealand

Authors: Chereshky A, Cameron G, Marshall RB
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 41, Issue 2, pp 101, Jun 1993
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Human
Subject Terms: Bacterial, Zoonosis, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Public health
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: In the short presentation An unusual human case of leptospirosis published in the New Zealand Veterinary Journal (Volume 41, p. 45, 1993) the author concludes that the isolate identified as Leptospira canicola was not the isolate recovered from the patient. The author is also convinced that L. canicola does not occur in New Zealand. If his assumptions are correct, it means that the patient`s isolate was somehow substituted with the type culture strain of L. canicola. This would have happened either in the hospital laboratory where the culture was isolated or at the New Zealand Communicable Disease Centre (NZCDC) where the isolate was identified. Although theoretically possible, in practical terms it is difficult to imagine how this could have happened…

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