Occurrence of anti-leptospira antibodies in dogs in the southwestern region of the state of São Paulo

Abstract

Leptospirosis is an emerging disease with different prevalence in dog populations. Dogs are crucial in the disease epidemiology, acting as accidental or maintenance hosts. Infective serovars present different geographic distribution among these populations, depending on exposure to hosts from infected wild or domestic animal reservoirs. The most common serovars that infect dogs – prior to the introduction of the vaccines against leptospirosis – were Icterohaemorrhagiae and Canicola