Leptospirosis in the Melut District--upper Nile Province (south Sudan)--an Overview

The authors examined 195 domestic animals for leptospirosis serologically in Sudan (170 cattle, 7 sheep and 18 goats) and 771 wild animals (36 species) with 13 serovars from 13 serogroups. 54% of domestic animals namely, 108 cattle and 1 sheep were positive in titer levels of 1:400 and higher. Cattle sera with the serovars of the serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae were 2.4% positive with Cynopteri 2.4%, Autumnalis 3.5%, Australis 1.2%, Pomona 2.9%, Grippotyphosa 2.9%, Hebdonadis 17.1%, Bataviae 9.4% and Tarassovi 50.6%. Only one Numida meleagris of the 54 wild birds (14 species) was positive in low titer level of 1:100 with L. canicola. Seventy (9.8%) of the 717 wild mammals (22 species) examined were positive namely with the serovars of the serogroups Icterohaemorrhagiae 3.4%, Javanica 3.0%, Pomona 2.0%, Grippotyphosa 0.7%, Hebdomadis 0.4%, Ballum, Australis, Pyrogenes, Bataviae each 0.3% and Cynopteri 0.1%, whereby sera from 7 animals reacted simultaneously with the serovars of two serogroups. With regard to the species, positive reactions were found in Erinaceus albiventris, Eidolon helbum, Cercopithecus aethiops, Genetta spec., Canis adustus et aurus, Felis silvestris, Leptailurus serval, Arvicanthis niloticus, Mastomys spec., Mus spec., Gazella spec., Tragelaphus spec. The positivity in rodents was very low - 1.2%.