Regional and Temporal Variations of Leptospira Seropositivity in Dogs in the United States, 2000–2010. (5th March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lee, H.S.; Levine, M.; Guptill‐Yoran, C.; Johnson, A.J.; von, P.; Moore, G.E.
• Is Part Of: Journal of veterinary internal medicine. Volume 28:Number 3(2014:May/Jun.)
• Page Start: 779
• Page End: 788
• Publication Date: 2014-03-05
• Subjects: Veterinary medicine -- Periodicals; 636.0896
• DOI: 10.1111/jvim.12335
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0891-6640

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="jvim12335-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="jvim12335-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Previous studies have reported a seasonal increased risk for leptospirosis, but there is no consistent seasonality reported across regions in the United States.</p> </sec> <sec id="jvim12335-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Objectives</title> <p>To evaluate and compare seasonal patterns in seropositivity for leptospirosis in dogs for 4 US regions (northeast [NE], midwest [MW], south‐central [SC], and California‐southern west coast [CS]).</p> </sec> <sec id="jvim12335-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Animals</title> <p>Forty four thousand nine hundred and sixteen canine serum samples submitted to a commercial laboratory for microscopic agglutination tests (MAT) from 2000 through 2010.</p> </sec> <sec id="jvim12335-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>In this retrospective study, positive cases were defined as MAT titers ≥1 : 3, 200 for at least one of 7 tested serovars. Four geographic regions were defined, and MAT results were included in regional analyses based on hospital zipcode. A seasonal‐trend decomposition method for times series was utilized for the analysis. Monthly variation in the seropositive rate was evaluated using a seasonal cycle subseries plot and logistic regression.</p> </sec> <sec id="jvim12335-sec-0005" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>Two thousand and twelve of 44, 916 (4.48%) samples were seropositive. Compared to seropositive rates for February, significantly higher monthly rates occurred during the 2nd half of the year in the MW (OR 3.92–6.35) and NE (OR 2.03–4.80) regions, and only in January (OR 2.34) and December (OR 1.74) in the SC region. Monthly seropositive rates indicative of seasonality were observed earlier in the calendar year for both CS and SC regions.</p> </sec> <sec id="jvim12335-sec-0006" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions and Clinical Importance</title> <p>Seasonal patterns for seropositivity to leptospires differed by geographic region. Although risk of infection in dogs can occur year round, knowledge of seasonal trends can assist veterinarians in formulating differential diagnoses and evaluation of exposure risk.</p> </sec> </abstract>