Leptospira infection in animals and humans: a potential public health risk in India.

Leptospirosis is recognised as one of the commonest zoonotic infections in the world. In India, where animals provide the draught power for agriculture, which is the main profession of the population, the incidence of leptospirosis among animals and humans is high. In this paper, the isolation of pathogenic leptospires from human and animal hosts from several parts of India is reported. Because there are only limited facilities for serotyping within the country, most of the isolates were typed to the serogroup level only. In addition, the potential of leptospirosis to be a serious public health problem in India is discussed.