*Leptospirosis: Rising Nuisance for Cattle and Threat to Public Health DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82211*

is different in all countries or regions. *L. bratislava* and *L. grippotyphosa* are more in Spain in those cattle which do not have good reproductive health [21]. Latin American countries, like Venezuela, have high prevalence of leptospirosis (80.51%) along with predominance of Sejroe serovar. Lesser incidence (2.6%) of disease has been observed in Peru during desiccated season when there are less chances for bacterial survival and transmission [24]. Similar results have been observed in Colombia and Mexico with the prevalence of 16.4–60.9% and 28.4–52%, respectively [25, 26]. Particularly, in countries like India, the bovine leptospirosis is highly

**Figure 1.**

*Bacterial Cattle Diseases*

occur [19].

**2. Etiology**

recovery or immunization which is defined by antibody production [13]. In the past few decades, leptospirosis has become an infectious disease of urban environments especially in industrialized and developing countries. Rural areas are also affected with high mortality due to delay in diagnosis and lack of infrastructure with adequate clinical suspicion and other unknown causes like inherent pathogenicity of *Leptospira* strains [8]. Leptospirosis is very common in tropical and subtropical areas where people are very close to animals. Warm and humid environment favors in distribution and survival of pathogen [14]. Sporadic cases are reported throughout the year with incidence ranges from 0.1 to 10 per 100,000 people; and during the epidemic, it can reach over 50 per 10,000 people. Most cases are reported in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Maldives, and Thailand. In the past, Sri Lanka (2008), Jakarta (2003), and Mumbai (2005) have been reported as epidemic areas of Southeast Asia [10]. The molecular classification of *Leptospira* in different species is described on DNA correlation base [3, 15]. The genome of *Leptospira* consists of two round chromosomes whose entire sequence has been established recently [8, 16]. The genome is larger than the genomes of other spirochetes, which shows the viability of *Leptospira* in different harsh environments [17]. Symptoms usually appear suddenly after an incubation period of 2–20 days, with a duration of 14 days at least. About 10% of patients diagnosed with leptospirosis having signs like Weil's disease, which manifests itself as jaundice, kidney failure, and hemorrhagic in pulmonary arteries [18]. Leptospirosis is usually related to headache, fever with muscular pain in both adults and children. Drowsiness, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cough, photophobia, arthralgia, and constipation may also

Leptospirosis is a prominent communicable disease caused by spirochete bacteria. The bacterial species belong to genus *Leptospira* that have ability to cause a disease in a variety of wild and domestic animal bases [3]. Spirochetes bacteria are motile having hook form or question-mark shape and range in size from 6 to 20 μm in length and 0.1 μm in thickness [4]. Family Leptospiraceae includes genus *Leptospira*, which is further divided into two strains, that is, pathogenic and saprophytic [4, 15]. Pathogenic *Leptospira* have 21 species, 25 serogroups, and 250 serovars [3, 5]. *Leptospira* spp. are obligate aerobes having sluggish growth. Ideal growth temperature for *Leptospira* is 28–30°C [16]. There are different other characteristics of *Leptospira* like size, number of genes and pseudogenes, etc. (**Figure 1**). Serovars "pomona and grippotyphosa" are expectedly found to be the most prevalent candidates [17]. Leptospirosis in cattle is caused by *Leptospira borgpetersenii* and *Leptospira interrogans* serovar Hardjo, strains (well adapted to cattle) Hardjo bovis and Hardjo prajitno [18]. In Brazil as well as in Latin America, L. borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo strain Hardjo bovis were isolated from naturally infected cattle. Before this study, only serological studies had shown reactive animals with the serovar Hardjo in various countries [20, 21]. In Brazil, Chile, England, and Columbia, serovar Hardjo was found most prevalent among cattle [22]. Between 1988 and 2007 in France, serovar Serjoe (34%) was most common in cattle [23]. There

Worldwide, the prevalence of animal leptospirosis is reported between 2 and 46% depending upon animal species [12]. More than 15 serogroups of *Leptospira* is observed and isolated from cattle, for example, icterohaemorrhagiae, canicola, pomona and grippotyphosa, etc. (Rocha). Seroprevalence of different serovars

are different reservoir hosts of *Leptospira* (**Table 1**).

**2.1 Prevalence of leptospirosis**

**46**

*Main characteristics of pathogenic and trophic genome Leptospira spp. [20].*


## **Table 1.**

*Typical reservoir hosts of Leptospira.*


## **Table 2.**

*Prevalence of bovine leptospirosis in different countries of Asia.*

prevalent, that is, up to 87% [27], 89.9% in Poland, and 88.2% in Mexico [28]. In contrary, certain states present lesser incidence, for example, 31.3% in Brazil [29], 27.4% in Australia [30], 30.3% in Tanzania [31], 20.3% in Sri Lanka [32], and 19.1% in Iran [33] (**Table 2**). These variations could be due to altered topographical localities, husbandry and farm management applications, infection immunity among diverse rears, and intensities of normal resistance [29]. In urban areas, leptospirosis is broadly prevalent, as stated by Platts-Mills [34].
