Seroprevalence of 16 Serovars in Wild Boar () Hunted in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

In order to investigate the occurrence and epidemiology of leptospirosis in the wild boar () population of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, blood samples were collected from 2616 wild boar regularly hunted in 2023 and 2024. The diagnostic investigations were performed using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) using a panel of fifteen pathogenic and one intermediate serovar of spp. Overall, 12.4% (325/2616) (CI 95% 11.2-13.7) of wild boar were seropositive, with Australis being the most prevalent serovar (22.8%), followed by Pomona (13.2%) and Pyrogenes (12.3%). Specific antibodies against the intermediate serovar Hurstbridge were also detected in 8% of the positive samples. Based on these results, we conclude that wild boar are regularly infected with different zoonotic serovars. As these hunted animals are tested for other notifiable diseases, additional screening for specific antibodies against spp. could be easily implemented. This would be an important tool for detecting human and domestic animals' risk of exposure and may provide insight into which serovars might be currently of clinical relevance.