Acute lethal leptospirosis in a red fox

Leptospirosis, caused by pathogenic spirochaetes belonging to the genus Leptospira, is a globally distributed zoonosis that can affect many species of domestic and wild animals, and humans.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a native species in Croatia and, due to constant food availability and lack of interspecies competition, is becoming more abundant in urban and suburban areas.

Although antibodies for Leptospira spp have been detected in red foxes, lethal disease has not been reported. The research team necropsied a young, male red fox that had jaundice, multifocal hemorrhages in the heart, lungs and urinary bladder, hepatomegaly, non-congestive splenomegaly and slight yellow discoloration of the renal cortex and medulla.

Histology revealed multifocal hemorrhages in parenchymal organs, thrombi within lung septal capillaries and other blood vessels, interstitial lymphocytic and plasmacytic nephritis and erosions of the gastric mucosa.

A microscopic agglutination test on the post-mortem cardiac blood clot revealed a high titer to Leptospira interrogans serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae, which implies contact with rats, which are natural reservoirs of this serovar in Croatia.

The gross and histological findings in this fox were similar to those in dogs with leptospirosis, indicating that fatal leptospirosis can occur in foxes and suggesting that this species can function as a source of infection for other animals and humans.

Doroteja Huber, et al. “Acute lethal leptospirosis in a red fox (Vulpes vulpes).” J Comp Pathol. 2023 Feb; 201:77-80. doi: 10.1016/j.jcpa.2023.01.002.

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