Etiological Structure of Canine Leptospirosis: A Literature Review

Introduction. One of the diseases most frequently registered in companion animals is leptospirosis, a natural focal zoonotic infection caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira, dangerous to humans. The main reservoirs hosts for spirochetes in wild fauna are rodents and insectivores, and in anthropurgic foci – domestic animals and cattle. Leptospirosis is widespread throughout the world, and despite the annual preventive measures, cases of disease in populations of susceptible animals continue to be detected and registered everywhere. To effectively combat the spread of infection, the comprehensive understanding of the etiological structure of leptospirosis is required. The aim of the present review is to summarise and analyse the data in native and foreign scientific papers on the causative agents of canine leptospirosis and the etiological structure of the disease.
Materials and Methods. The search for the papers was carried out in databases of electronic libraries and journals (NCBI, ResearchGate, Springer, etc.) using the keywords: leptospirosis, dog, microagglutination test, serogroup, serovar. Papers published during the last 10 years in Russian and English were studied. The results were presented in a PRISMA flow chart and a table.
Results. The conducted analysis of the prevalence of leptospirosis among dogs in different regions of the world indicates a generally adverse situation. The analysis of the etiological structure of the disease has revealed the presence of different serogroups and serovars depending on the geographical region, climate and vaccination history of animals.
Discussion and Conclusion. Understanding the real epizootic situation on canine leptospirosis is important not only for veterinary medicine, but for humanitarian medicine as well. Development and implementation of efficient preventive measures require constant disease monitoring and laboratory research, which includes, in addition to serological surveillance of leptospirosis, detection of the new leptospira isolates during disease outbreaks. This will reveal a complete picture of the infectious process and will enable modeling the new specific immune preparations for combating the disease.

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