LEPTOSPIROSIS ASSOCIATED ABORTION IN COWS OF NATIONAL JERSEY BUILDING CENTRE, SAMTSE

Abstract

Leptospirosis is an acute zoonotic infection caused by spirochete bacteria belonging to genus Leptospira. Typical signs of leptospirosis in cattle are abortion, stillbirth, weak new born calf, sudden milk drop and infertility. A cow can abort as early as fourth month of gestation but abortion during third trimester is more common. We conducted a study with the objective to describe the findings of investigation on abortion cases of cows at the National Jersey Breeding Center in Samtse district. Paired sera samples were collected 14 days apart. First set of sera samples were collected soon after the abortion (n=6) and subjected to microscopic agglutination test (MAT) against the panel of Hardjo, Pomona and Lai like serovars. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to interview farm workers. The highest rate of abortion was 15.8%. Paired sera test revealed over fourfold rise in Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) titre against at least one serovar of Leptospira. Leptospirosis can significantly reduce farm profitability due to loss of calves and drop in milk production. Findings on the exposure of farm worker clearly suggest importance of farm biosecurity and occupational health safety. Isolation of organism from clinical sample will provide more information on infecting serovars in Bhutan.