The Presence of a Virulent Clone of Serovar Canicola in Confirmed Cases of Asymptomatic Dog Carriers in Mexico.

Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonotic disease that commonly affects cattle, pigs, horses, and dogs in many countries. Infection in dogs is usually subclinical, but acute cases of leptospirosis may occur along with systemic failure, which may become fatal. After recovery from an acute infection, dogs may become asymptomatic carriers and shed pathogenic leptospires through urine for long periods of time.

GspD, The Type II Secretion System Secretin of , Protects Hamsters against Lethal Infection with a Virulent Isolate.

The wide variety of pathogenic serovars and the weak protection offered by the available vaccines encourage the search for protective immunogens against leptospirosis. We found that the secretin GspD of the type II secretion system (T2S) of serovar Canicola was highly conserved amongst pathogenic serovars and was expressed in vivo during infection, as shown by immunohistochemistry. Convalescent sera of hamsters, dogs, and cows showed the presence of IgG antibodies, recognizing a recombinant version of this protein expressed in (rGspDLC) in Western blot assays.