Domestic rodents as reservoirs of pathogenic leptospira on two City of Harare farms: Preliminary results of bacteriological and serological studies

Bacteriological and serological studies were carried out to determine the role domestic rodents play in transmitting leptospirosis on two City of Harare farms. Rodents were trapped and their kidneys and urine cultured for Leptospira. The rodents and volunteer blood donors, from farm workers and their families, were bled and the sera screened for antibodies against representative strains of eight serogroups of Leptospira using the Microscopic Agglutination Test. Rattus rattus was the most abundant rodent caught and yielded the majority of the Leptospira isolates. The prevalence of leptospiral titres at a serum dilution of 1 :100, was 62.5 \% for the rodents and 82\% for the volunteer blood donors. The most common titres in both the rodents and humans were to antigens from the Icterohaemorrhagiae, Pyrogenes and Grippotyphosa serogroups. The results suggest that leptospirosis is a common occupational disease of workers on the two farms which is transmitted to them by rodents.