The serological and cultural prevalence of leptospirosis in a sample of feral goats

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Abstract
There were 98 serum samples and 101 kidneys examined from feral goats submitted for slaughter from Raglan County, New Zealand. It was found that 13.3% of the sera had agglutinating antibodies to Leptospira hardjo and L. interrogans-balcanica. One L. interrogans-hardjo and 3 L. interrogans-balcanica isolates were made from the kidneys of the same group of goats. No Hebdomadis group titers were demonstrated from a further 18 blood samples of feral goats from the Taranaki and Taupo regions. Four of the total 116 sera examined had titers of between 1:24-1:196 to L. interrogans-ballum. Thus, the goat is evidently not a natural maintenance host for leptospires in New Zealand. The L. interrogans-balcanica infections possibly were related to close association with possums. The L. interrogans-hardjo infection, and the evidence of previous L. interrogans-ballum infection, are believed to have resulted from associations with cattle and wild rodents, respectively.