The failure of genus specific serological tests to detect leptospirosis in cattle and rabbits

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Abstract
Extract In New Zealand, Leptospirosis of cattle is an important zoonosis. Human leptospirosis, one of the most common of the) notifiable diseases (Christmas et al., 1974 Christmas, B. W. , Tennent, R. B. and Lindsay, P. G. 1974. Dairy farm fever in New Zealand: A local outbreak of human leptospirosis. N.Z. med. J., 79: 901–904. [Google Scholar] ) is almost exclusively a disease of dairy farmers. Clinical signs of bovine Leptospira infections are frequently not observed (Sullivan, 1974 Sullivan, N. D. 1974. Leptospirosis in animals and man. Aust. vet. J., 50: 216–223. [Google Scholar] ). Consequently, serological tests are often used to detect leptospirosis in cattle. The microscopic agglutination (MA) test is fairly serotypespecific, but it is tedious to perform and requires potentially hazardous living cultures. The complement fixation (CF) test is less serotype-specific, uses killed organisms, and may be a better indicator of recent infection (Hodges and Ris, 1974 Hodges, R. T. and Ris, D. R. 1974. Complement fixing and agglutinating antibody responses and leptospiruria in calves inoculated with Leptospira serotypes pomona, hardjo, copenhageni or ballum. N.Z. vet. J., 22: 25–30. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] ). Both tests require a variety of serotypes to identify those causing the infection.