Leptospiruria in Striped Skunks

Abstract

THE NATURAL occurrence of leptospirosis in striped skunks, Mephitis mephitis, was first reported by McKeever and associates (1).They isolated 18 strains from 132 animals col¬ lected in Georgia.Ten of these strains were Leptospira pomona, five were L. ballum, one was not identified, and two were lost.Follow¬ ing this report, additional leptospiral isolates were obtained, some of which were designated as L. bakeri by Galton and co-workers (2), but were later reclassified as L. hyos bakeri by Wolff and Bohlander (3).Other strains were found to be a new serotype and were designated L. atlantae (3).Several strains were found to represent a new subserotype in the hebdomadis serogroup and were designated L. mini georgia U).In preliminary papers, Roth and associates (5,6) reported the occurrence of L. pomona, L. canicola, L. baHwm, and members of the ictero¬ haemorrhagiae, hyos, and hebdomadis sero- groups among striped skunks in Louisiana.A study in Pennsylvania {7) revealed 18 of 54 striped skunks infected with leptospires.Fourteen of the 18 strains isolated in Pennsyl¬ vania were L. pomona, 3 were L. balliwn, and 1 was not identified.Additional studies of lep¬ tospirosis among skunks in Georgia (8) re-