Conference update

I am in Vancouver, Canada, where the 11th International Leptospirosis Society Conference is just wrapping up. It has been 4 days of non-stop leptospirosis!

There are ~150 people attending this conference, from a total or 35 countries! I am the only Alaskan, and one of only a few Americans. It has been a wonderful, eye-opening meeting.

The take-aways from this meeting for me are that leptospirosis really is hard to diagnose! Serology (microscopic agglutination test aka MAT) results often do not correlate with antigen (polymerase chain-reaction aka PCR) results. And there are so many serovars that you have to know what you're looking for before you even get started. Also, there is still SO much that we don't know about this disease and it's ecology, particularly in the North. I presented a poster on my caribou/reindeer work, which is so far the only targeted surveillance work on leptospira in Alaskan rangifer species. Multiple scientists came by to chat and urged that I publish this work - which is in the works!

Now that we know a little bit about leptospira in caribou and reindeer, we need to know where they are getting it from, and rodents are a likely possibility! That is why funding this surveillance project is so important.

 

All of the attendees at the 11th International Leptospirosis Society (ILS) Conference in Vancouver, Canada, on July 12, 2019