• 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 44  (12) , 2244-2245
Abstract
Blood for serologic examination and kidneys for bacteriologic cultural examination were collected from 204 cows slaughtered in an Iowa [USA] packing plant during Aug.-Oct. 1981. By the microscopic agglutination test on the 200 serum samples which were collected, 29 (14.5%) were positive; 22 samples(10.8%) had agglutinin titers to hardjo, 4 (2%) to pomona and 5 (2.5%) to other serovars. With the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, 79 samples (39.5%) were positive, 53 (26.5%) to hardjo and 36 (18%) to pomona. Leptospires were isolated from 13 (6.4%) of the 204 kidneys examined. Characterization indicated that 7 isolates were hardjo; 3, grippotyphosa; and 2, pomona (1 isolate was lost during 1st subculture). Three of the hardjo isolates and 1 of the grippotyphosa isolates were obtained from cows that were seronegative by the microscopic agglutination test.