%0 Journal Article
%T Seroprevalence of Leptospira Hardjo in the Irish suckler cattle population
%A Eoin Gerard Ryan
%A Nola Leonard
%A Luke O'Grady
%A Simon J More
%A Michael L Doherty
%J Irish Veterinary Journal
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/2046-0481-65-8
%X Herds were categorised as either ¡°Free from Infection¡± or ¡°Infected¡± using the epidemiological software tool, FreeCalc 2.0. Using this classification, 237 herds were ¡°Infected¡± (82.29%). The South West and South East regions had the highest herd prevalence. The regional effect on herd prevalence was largely mirrored by breeding herd size. A true animal-level prevalence of 41.75% was calculated using the epidemiological software tool, TruePrev. There was a statistically significant regional trend, with true prevalence being highest in the South East (P£¿<£¿0.05). The median Breeding Herd Size (BHS), when categorised into quartiles, had a statistically significant influence on individual animal true seroprevalence (P£¿<£¿0.001); true seroprevalence increased with increasing BHS.Leptospirosis is a widespread endemic disease in the Republic of Ireland. It is possible that economic losses due to leptospirosis in unvaccinated Irish suckler herds may be underestimated.
%K Leptospirosis
%K Hardjo
%K Suckler
%K Ireland
%K Seroprevalence
%K ELISA
%K Herd size
%K Region
%K FreeCalc
%K Endemic
%U http://www.irishvetjournal.org/content/65/1/8/abstract