Brazilian Journals Publicações de Periódicos e Editora Ltda.
Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence of anti-Leptospira antibodies in dogs held in a public animal shelter from the city of Barbacena, Southeastern Brazil. All samples were analyzed by the Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) including a panel of 24 serovars representing 21 serogroups, samples with titer ? 100 were defined as seroreactive. Of a total of 172 dogs investigated, 23 (13.44%) were seroreactivity with antibody titers ranging from 100 to 1600. Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola (30.4%) (serogroup Canicola) presented the highest seroreactivity, followed by Pyrogenes (17.4%) (serogroup Pyrogenes) and Hebdomadis (13%) (serogroup Hebdomadis). The serological findings indicate that sheltered dogs are exposed to Leptospira spp. infection, with predominant of serovar Canicola historically maintained by dogs.
