An unusual human case of leptospirosis (abstract)

Authors: Belton DJ
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 41, Issue 1, pp 45, Mar 1993
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Companion animal, Dog, Human
Subject Terms: Bacterial, Biosecurity, Diagnostic procedures, Disease surveillance, Zoonosis, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Public health
Article class: Abstract

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Abstract: In April 1991, a medical practitioner was admitted to Auckland Hospital with severe sweats, myalgia, headaches, lethargy and pyrexia. Leptospires were isolated from a blood sample taken during one of the fever spikes and referred to a reference laboratory for identification. The initial reference laboratory referred the isolate on to a second reference laboratory where it was identified as Leptospira canicola.
Leptospira canicola has never previously been recovered from animals or man in New Zealand. The absence of any history of overseas travel indicates the patient acquired this infection in New Zealand. However, a survey of dogs in the Auckland region in 1990 did not detect any dogs with antibodies to L. canicola. Similarly, blood samples collected from animals kept on the patient’s property and neighbouring properties had no antibodies to L. canicola, and no leptospires were cultured from urine samples from the same animals.
In countries where there is a high rate of endemic L. canicola infection in animals, L. canicola infection of man is uncommon. The conclusion in this case is that the isolate finally identified as L. canicola was not the isolate recovered from the patient, and that L. canicola does not occur in New Zealand.

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