Volume: 57 Issue: 2
Year: 2026, Page: 323-329, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2026.57.2.323-329
Received: Feb. 7, 2026 Accepted: March 31, 2026 Published: June 30, 2026
Leptospirosis is one of the leading zoonotic tropical disease and has been endemic in India since the 20th century. The present study was undertaken to assess the occurrence of Leptospira spp. among cattle and their role in disease transmission in Pandalam municipality of Pathanamthitta district, which has been recognised as hotspot for human leptospirosis by the State Surveillance Unit, Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Kerala in the year 2023. A total of 101 apparently healthy dairy cattle were randomly selected, and blood and urine samples were collected from the same animal. Blood samples were analysed by Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) using a panel of 25 reference serovars, while urinary shedding was assessed by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). An overall seropositivity of 63.36 per cent was observed in Pandalam municipality, with antibody titres ranging from 1:50 to 1:3200. Among the seropositive samples, 21.87 per cent samples showed titres of 1:400 and above. None of the cattle exhibited any overt clinical signs, however farmers reported history of various reproductive disorders among the cattle. Molecular detection of urine samples revealed 7.92 per cent positivity for the genus-specific 16S rRNA gene, while 0.99 per cent samples were positive for the lipL21 gene, indicating shedding of leptospires in urine. The study highlights the importance of identifying circulating serovars in carrier animals such as cattle, in which infection is usually asymptomatic and their role in the maintenance and transmission of the disease. These findings will aid in adopting proper interventions for effective prevention and control of leptospirosis in endemic regions such as Kerala.
Keywords: Leptospirosis, microscopic agglutination test, cattle, Kerala, polymerase chain reaction
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© 2026 Haritha et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Haritha, V., Vrinda, K.M., Sunil, B., Deepa, J., Sethulekshmi, C., & Surya, S. (2026). Seroprevalence of Leptospira spp. in cattle of Pandalam municipality - hotspot in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala. Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 57(2),323-329 https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2026.57.2.323-329