Seroprevalence to pathogenic leptospira in Peruvian alpacas and vicuñas

• We report a seroprevalence of pathogenic Leptospira serovars in Andean alpacas and vicuñas.
• Icterohaemorrhagiae and pomona serovars are the most prevalent.
• The hight titers of both pathogenic serovars indicate a recent infections event.

Micro agglutination testing was used to detect specific antibodies against five pathogenic Leptospiraserovars (icterohaemorrhagiae, pomona, canicola, wolfii and ballum) in 793 alpaca and 195 vicuña serum samples collected in the Huancavelica and Ayacucho Departments of Peru. The study revealed that 89.6% of the alpacas and 77.4% of the vicuñas were positive to one or more serovars. In alpacas, the titers varied from 1:100 to 1:1600 for reactions to icterohaemorrhagiae (43.4%) and pomona (37.8%), whereas among vicuñas titers varied from 1:100 to 1:400 for reactions to the same serovarsicterohaemorrhagiae (69.2%) and pomona (8.2%). The alpacas also had antibodies to canicola (7.8%) and wolfii (0.6%). These results show that these animals had previous exposure to 4 of the 5 serovars tested, and the elevated titers to icterohaemorrhagiae and pomona in alpacas suggest a recent infection event.