Prevalence of leptospirosis in livestock, rodents, and shrews in Kilwa district of Southern Tanzania
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Date
2024-04
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Leptospirosis is a globally resurgent zoonotic disease that affects
both humans and animals, with occurrences widespread in tropical
and sub-tropical regions. Tanzania, located in Sub-Saharan Africa,
is among the tropical countries grappling with the burden of
leptospirosis in both human and animal populations. Following the
reporting of 20 confirmed symptomatic cases and 3 deaths, the
Tanzanian Ministry of Health (MoH) declared the outbreak of
leptospirosis on July 5, 2022. The main objective of this cross-
section study was to determine the prevalence of leptospirosis by
using the Microscopic Agglutination Test in Rodents, shrews and
livestock (Cattle, Goats, and Sheep) in Kilwa district of southern
Tanzania. Blood samples were collected from 100cattle, 120goats,
20 sheep and 202 small mammals (Rodents and shrews) in Kilwa
district in selected villages for decanting sera. The serum samples
harvested were tested against five Leptospira live antigens to detect
Leptospira antibodies through Microscopic Agglutination Tests. In
this study, five leptospiral antigens that were reported in Tanzania
were employed such as Sokoine, Pomona, Hebdomadis, Lora, and
Grippotyphosa. The overall prevalence of leptospirosis in cattle was
26%=95%CI=0.1774-0.3573, in goats was 27.5%=95%CI=0.1975-
0.3640, in sheep was 30%=95%CI=0.1189-0.5428 .and prevalence
of small mammals was 14.36%=95%CI=0.0983-0. 1996. Among the
small mammals, 61.2% of the sample tested positive for leptospiral
serovars and were from Mastomys natalensis, making it a more
prevalent species. Serovars Sokoine was more prevalent than all
tested serovars. Most of the antibody titers obtained ranged from
1:20 to 1:80, suggesting prolonged infection. Livestock
demonstrated also a high prevalence of leptospirosis with serovar
Sokoine being the most prevalent serovar.
Some of the
leptospirosis antibodies were low, suggesting chronic infection, but
others tested with high titers, which suggested new infection of
leptospirosis, especially in goats. Logistic regression was also
performed to determine the association between Leptospiral antibody infection and different characteristics such as sex, location,
host, and serovars with P= 0.0086. There was a significant
association between the leptospiral infection and serovars Sokoine
and Grippotyphosa with P=0.0073, nevertheless, there was no
significant between the disease with other characteristics such as
sex, host, location and serovars This present study suggests that
leptospira infection is a matter of public health concern as it is
associated with different burdens from animals and humans,
decreased livestock economy to livestock keepers due to the death
of livestock animals, and decline in milk production, death of people
following outbreak as it reported in Tanzania. Increased contact
between human and their animals suggests possible transmission of
leptospirosis in Kilwa district the southern, Tanzania. Therefore,
control of the disease is inevitable to reduce the burden of the
disease.
Description
MSc. Dissertation
Keywords
Leptospirosis, zoonosis, serovars, Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT), Livestock, small mammals, Kilwa district