Sameer Sharma, Vijayachari P, Sugunan AP, Subarna Roy, Kalimuthusamy Natarajaseenivasan
Leptospirosis is endemic to the Andaman Islands and is emerging as an important public health problem in many other parts of India. The ecology of the Andaman Islands is ideal for the disease to remain as an endemic in the warm and humid environment within the rodent population as reservoirs, wild and domestic animals as carriers and affecting humans as incidental hosts. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies regarding the serological and genetic affinities of leptospires infecting humans and animals in Andaman region. A modest study was undertaken to understand the leptospiral carrier state and seroprevalence among animals slaughtered in an abattoir in the Andaman. Serum samples were collected from 184 cattle and 202 goats slaughtered in the abattoir during a two-year period and tested for the presence of leptospiral antibodies. Isolation was also attempted from kidney samples of each of these animals. High seroprevalence of 37% was observed in cattle and 29% in goats slaughtered. Since animals brought from different parts of the Andaman Islands showed Icterohaemorrhagiae, Grippotyphosa and Hebdomadis as the commonest reacting serogroups that are also the commonest among human cases and these animals might have been playing an important role in spreading the disease. Four leptospires were isolated from cattle, belonging to the serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae. The study highlights the importance of a wide project involving animals and the environment for understanding the transmission dynamics of leptospirosis in the Islands which will help in devising of control and intervention strategies.
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