An Investigation Into the Seroprevalence of Leptospirosis Caused by Serovar Hardjo in Irish Suckler/Beef Hers and the Associated Risk Factors for New Infection

The epidemiology of leptospirosis is governed mainly by the nature of the spirochaete-host interacton. In general, within regions only some serovars will be present and these serovars tend to show marked host-adaptation (Ellis 1985b). From this observation has developed the concept of maintenance and incidental hosts. A maintenance host is one which will maintain and perpetuate infection by a given serovar without the required intervention of another host, while an incidental host is one which accidentally becomes infected by a strain maintained by another host species which shares the same environment. Endemic infection does not become established in an incidental host population (Ellis 1985b). It has been well established that cattle are the maintenance hosts for serovar hardjo and this explains its endemic nature in Irish dairy herds. It is expected that the current research project will confirm the endemic nature of L. hardjo in the Irish suckler cattle population also.