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Objective: To evaluate serological findings of bovine leptospirosis which is a zoonotic disease with worldwide distribution caused by Leptospira interrogans. Methods: One hundred and sixty seven sera were collected from 9 commercial dairy herds in jiroft suburbs, from July to October 2011. Microscopic agglutination test (MAT) was used to evaluates serological findings of bovine leptospirosis in Jiroft suburb dairy farms, Kerman province, Iran. Results: Antibodies were found by MAT at least against one serovar of Leptospira interrogans in 29 samples (17.36%) among 167 sera at a dilution 1:100 or higher, and Leptospira pomona was the most prevalent serovar. Positive titers against more than one serovar were detected in 6 sera of the positive samples. Conclusions: This study is the first report of leptospirosis in Southeast Iran and showed that Leptospira pomona was the most and Leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae the least prevalent serovars in Southeast Iran.

Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis caused by Leptospira interrogans. It causes financial loss to the cattle industry with decreased milk production, abortion, stillbirth, infertility, and mortality. This study was conducted to evaluate two serological techniques, the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), for detection of leptospiral antibodies in cattle. Three hundred and fifty five serum samples were collected from five commercial dairy farms in Tehran suburb from December 2004 to June 2005. The results of the MAT protocol showed that 55 serum samples (15.49%) had detectable antibodies against at least one serovar of L. interrogans at a dilution of ≥ 1:100. Icterohaemorrhagiae was the most (42.52%) and ballum the least (1.15%) prevalent serovars among 87 positive reactions against different serovars of L. interrogans. Leptospiral antibodies were also detected by the ELISA in 77 sera (21.69%) of 355 samples. The results of this study also showed that 2.25% of the sera that reacted positive in the MAT were negative by the ELISA, and 8.45% of the MAT negative sera were positive by the ELISA. Comparison between two techniques showed that there was a high correlation (0.61 < kappa = 0.649 < 0.8) between the ELISA and MAT for detection of leptospiral antibodies in cattle.