ArticleNew Zealand veterinary journal2026
The effects of rain and flooding on leptospirosis incidence in sheep and cattle in New Zealand.
Article in New Zealand veterinary journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Genotyping Reveals Potential Sources of Human Leptospirosis Outbreaks in Aotearoa New Zealand.Zoonoses and public health · 2026Article
- The association between rainfall and human leptospirosis in Aotearoa New Zealand.Epidemiology and infection · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
aimsTo describe the spatio-temporal patterns of leptospirosis case counts in sheep and cattle in New Zealand, and to assess their association with climate variables indicative of flooding and surface runoff. As livestock are a major reservoir of
methodsConfirmed cases of bovine and ovine leptospirosis from January 2011 to December 2023 were extracted from the Ministry for Primary Industries' Animal Health Surveillance programme. Climate data was sourced from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Using the
resultsFindings indicated an average of 13 confirmed cases for sheep annually, with notable surges in 2017 (34 cases) and 2023 (36 cases), aligning with extreme climate events. Poisson regression models for sheep leptospirosis identified significant associations with extreme rainfall (incidence risk ratio (IRR) = 5.03; 95% CI = 1.18-21.45), mean rainfall (IRR = 1.25; 95% CI = 1.15-1.36), surface runoff (IRR = 1.09; 95% CI = 1.04-1.15), and soil moisture (IRR = 1.03; 95% CI = 1.02-1.03). Cattle leptospirosis was positively associated with surface runoff (IRR = 1.06; 95% CI = 1.02-1.10) and soil moisture (IRR = 1.01; 95% CI = 1.00-1.01). Associations with extreme rainfall (IRR = 1.46; 95% CI = 0.49-4.31) and mean rainfall (IRR = 1.07; 95% CI = 1.00-1.14) were not statistically significant.
conclusionsThe outcomes of this study provide new evidence linking extreme rainfall, surface runoff, and other climate variables with increased leptospirosis case counts in sheep, with less pronounced but notable associations in cattle. These findings highlight the vulnerability of livestock to climate-driven disease pressures and suggest that future extreme weather events may increase the risk of leptospirosis outbreaks. This has important implications for targeted vaccination, surveillance, and public health preparedness in flood-prone rural regions of New Zealand. ABBREVIATIONS: ICC: Intra-class correlation coefficient; IRR: Incidence risk ratio; MPI: Ministry for Primary Industries; NIWA: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
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