Occurrence of leptospirosis in dogs with renal and/or hepatic disease in Chennai, India

Leptospirosis is an emerging zoonotic bacterial infection affecting both humans and animals that usually exhibits multisystemic symptoms.However, the classical disease in dogs is characterized by renal disease or concurrent renal and hepatic diseases.This retrospective study was designed to identify the occurrence of leptospirosis in dogs presented with renal and/or hepatic illness in Chennai, India.A total of 78 dogs were selected, and details such as signalment, medical history, management as well as clinical observations were recorded.Serum samples collected from affected dogs were examined using the gold standard Microscopic agglutination test (MAT) with cut-off titer of > 1:100.Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson's chi-square tests for risk factor analysis.Of the total 78 dogs, 48 (61.54%) were seropositive for leptospirosis based on MAT having titres ranging from 1:100 to 1:1600.Among 12 regionally prevalent serogroups tested in MAT, Australis serogroup (n=28) was found to be highly prevalent, followed by Autumnalis (n=07), Ballum (n=03), Canicola (n=03), Javanica (n=03), Grippotyphosa (n=02), Pomona (n=01) and Pyrogenes (n=01).Adult dogs (1 to 5 years) (p<0.05),dogs with history of rodent exposure (p<0.05) and dogs with outdoor activity (p<0.01) had a higher risk for leptospirosis, but no significant association was observed between sex, breed, vaccination status and occurrence of disease.This study showed around two in three dogs presented with renal and/or hepatic disease have the possibility of being affected with leptospirosis, which necessitates incorporation of regionally circulating serogroups in vaccines for protection against disease.