Analysis of 1840 Equine Intraocular Fluid Samples for the Presence of Anti-<i>Leptospira</i> Antibodies and Leptospiral DNA and the Correlation to Ophthalmologic Findings in Terms of Equine Recurrent Uveitis (ERU)—A Retrospective Study

Abstract

In the equine clinic of the LMU in Munich, therapeutic vitrectomies have been routinely performed in horses for three decades. The vitreous samples obtained during vitrectomies were usually tested for anti-<i>Leptospira</i> antibodies and for more than 20 years also by PCR for leptospiral DNA. If the indication for surgery was ophthalmologically inconclusive, an aqueous humor was collected preoperatively and examined for evidence of leptospiral infection. In this study, medical records from 2002 to 2017 were analyzed. Records for 1387 eyes affected by equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) and 237 eyes affected by another type of uveitis met the inclusion criteria. A total of 216 samples from healthy eyes were used as controls. In 83% of intraocular samples from ERU eyes, antibody titers of 1:100 or higher were detectable by microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Similarly, 83% of intraocular samples had anti-<i>Leptospira</i> antibodies detected by ELISA. In 72% of the intraocular specimens, leptospiral DNA was detectable by PCR. No antibodies were detectable in the samples from eyes with another type of uveitis or in the samples from healthy eyes. A PCR was positive in only one sample from a healthy eye. These results with a very high number of intraocular specimens demonstrate the great importance of an intraocular leptospiral infection for ERU. It can be concluded that for a reliable diagnosis of intraocular leptospiral infection or to reliably exclude an infection multiple tests should be applied.