Epidemiological Study of Animal Leptospirosis in New Caledonia

Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease in the world and a real public health concern for many years in New Caledonia. A cross-sectional survey was carried out on domestic and wild animals from New Caledonia in April 2009. Blood samples were collected from 30 cattle, 29 deers, (Cervus timorensis russa), 25 horses, 51 dogs, and 8 cats and were tested for 23 serovars of pathogenic Leptospira species by the microscopic agglutination test. From the total number of 143 samples, 84 (58.7%) were found to be positive towards one or several serovars of pathogenic leptospires. According to the species, the positive sera were obtained from 43% of 30 cattle, 72% of 29 Rusa deer, 80% of 25 horses, and 43% of 51 dogs, and fromall of the 8 cats tested. This study shows the broad dispersion and the high prevalence of the different serogroups of pathogenic Leptospira species tested, particularly among deer and horses. The disease is endemic in domestic animals and concerns all the species.