EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ANIMAL LEPTOSPIROSIS

Animal leptospirosis is a bacteiral zoonosis of worlwide ditribution w hich affects domestic and wild animals. In France, the incidence is va riable according years and animals species. The two main factors invol ved in the epidemiology of leptospirosis are the urine of infected ani mals and the water which provides survival and dissemination of leptos pires when conditions are favorable. For animals, the transmission of the disease occurs mainly by feed, bedding, pasture and drinking water contaminated by the urine but for some species, transplacental route and semen transmission are involved. In France, the frequency of lepto spirosis in domestic animals is related with environmental conditions (as abundance of the wildlife reservoir and water) meteorological fact ors and the breeding technics but have not a real seasonal aspect. The development of molecular biological tools (PCR) provides nowadays an improvement in the knowledges of the different epidemiological factors of animal leptospirosis.