Abstract
Bovine leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects bovine herds,
causing economic losses due to reproductive problems, which require
expensive treatments. The main source of transmission for cattle is
still uncertain, but it has been described that small wild mammals can
play an important role in the transmission cycle by being maintenance
hosts for the pathogenic species of the bacterium and spreading it
through urine. In this study, we characterize possible risk areas for
bovine leptospirosis in the state of Veracruz, Mexico; based on the
geographical distribution of small wild hosts of Leptospira sp. reported
in Mexico in addition with climatic, geographic, land use and human
activities variables, and validated risk map with bovine seroprevalence
data. We used a generalized linear regression model to understand the
association between the appearance of bovine leptospirosis
seroprevalences and the favorability of wild hosts of Leptospira sp. as
well as environmental variables. The parameterized model explains
13.58% of the variance. The seroprevalence in cattle showed a negative
relationship with elevation, geographic length and human population
density, and a positive relationship with environmental favorability for
the bats reservoirs and favorability for at least one rodent and opossum
reservoir. The variation in seroprevalence is mainly explained by a
longitudinal gradient (10.4% of the variance) and the favourability for
bats (3.0% of the variance). Describing the possible risks of
seroprevalence in an important and neglected livestock geographical
region, we contribute to the selection of areas of strategies for
diagnosis and prevention of this relevant disease.