LEPTOSPIRA AND SALMONELLA IN A FLOCK OF SHEEP IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF ITAPIRA, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL.

The aim of this study was to survey antibodies against Leptospira spp. and to  isolate Salmonella spp. in a flock of sheep in the Municipality of Itapira, SP, Brazil. For this, the presence of antibodies against Leptospira spp. was verified by the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and, to obtain cultures of Salmonella spp.,  the retal swabs were inoculated into enrichment broths. Of 115 analysed animals, 44 (38.26%) were positive, 23 (20.00%) to serovar Hebdomadis 15 (13.04%) to serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae and six (22.5%) to serovar Pomona. No animals were positive to Salmonella spp. These findings suggest that sheep can be an infection source of Leptospira spp. for humans and the absence of positive results in the Salmonella spp. analysis do not ensure that the pathogen is not present infecting humans and animals. Health professionals in Brazil need to be more committed to actions of preventive medicine in rural communities, in order to get success in control of important zoonoses such as leptospirosis and salmonellosis.