Icterohaemorrhagiae

Icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup - 1915

In the serovar list of 1967 (WHO, 1967) the Icterohaemorrhagiae serogroup consisted of 13 serovars, including Sarmin and Weaveri, both of which are now considered to be members of the reestablished Sarmin serogroup (see paragraph 3.1.1) and Budapest, which recently was withdrawn from the list.
In the said list serovar Budapest was given provisional status pending further investigation. Its separate serological status described by Fuzy and Csoka (1962) and studied by Babudieri (1966) was not confirmed by any other RL. However, Kmety (1974) reported that serovar Budapest was serologically identical to Mankarso. At the TSC meeting in Manchester (1986) Terpstra presented the results of his investigations which indicated that by using monoclonal antibodies, the strain representing serovar Budapest behaves as a strain of serovar Copenhageni. These conflicting results could be caused by a possible mixed culture with varying proportions of each of the components.
Serovar Budapest has therefore been omitted from the Revised List (Kmety, Dikken, 1988).

Serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae can be represented by either of the two original published strains viz: Ictero No. 1 (Inada and Ido, 1915 a and b) or RGA (Uhlenhuth and Fromme, 1916).
As the authenticity of the strain Ictero No. 1 was under discussion for many years, the TSC selected RGA as reference strain (Minutes TSC meetings 1966 and 1986). However, after the publication of the detailed description on the history of strain Ictero No. 1 by Yamamoto and Yanagawa (1990), the TSC decided during its meeting in Osaka (1990), to recognize the authenticity of this strain. Since it had been isolated earlier than RGA, the TSC decided to replace RGA by Ictero No. 1 as reference strain, notwithstanding its serological difference from RGA caused by an additional thermolabile antigen in strain Ictero No. 1 (Borg-Petersen, 1972(?) and Kmety, 1972).
Because of their serological differences both strains, RGA as well as Ictero No. 1, are included in this paper and in the attached serovar list. Comparative typing studies performed only with strain Ictero No. I may lead to confusing typing results.

Two new serovars have been included in the Icterohaemorrhagiae group, viz. Tonkini and Gem. Another strain, LT 60-69, has now been also confirmed as a new serovar named Bogvere, but since its valid description has not yet been published it is listed in the Annex. A Chinese strain Lai placed in the Annex of the Revised List of Serovars (Kmety, Dikken, 1988) and two Korean strains have recently been found to be validly published and are therefore included in the attached updated list as serovar Lai, Hongchon and Yeonchon. As a result of these findings the serogroup consists of 15 serovars.
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* WHO: Current Problems in Leptospirosis Research. Wld. Hlth. Org. Tech. Rep. Ser. No. 380, Geneva 1967, p.32.
* Fuzi M., Csoka R. Studies on leptospirosis in albino rat colonies. Acta Microbiol. Acad. Sci. Hung. 9, 4, 1962/63, 355.
* Babudieri B.: Die systematische Stellung des "Serotyp Budapest" der Leptospira. Zbl. Bakt. 1 Abt. Orig. 199,1966, 67-71.

* TSC meeting, 1986, Manchester: Minutes. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 37, 1987, 472-473 .
* TSC meeting, 1966: Statements and Recommendations. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 21, 1971, 142-146.
* TSC meeting, 1990, Osaka: Minutes. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 42, 1992, 330-334.
* Kmety E. Problems of the serological classification of pathogenic leptospires. Folia Fac. Med. Univ. Comenianae Bratisl. 12, 1974, suppl. 101-110.
* Kmety E., Dikken H. Revised List of Leptospira Serovars (accepted by the ubcommittee on the Taxonomy of Leptospira). University Press Groningen, 1988, p. 16.
* Inada R., Ido Y. The discovery of a new kind of spirochetes as agents of Weil's disease (Jap.). Tokyo Ijishinshi no. 1908, 1915, 351-360.
* Inada R., Ido Y. The pure cultivation of Spirochaeta icterohaemorrhagiae japonica (in Japanese). Saikingaku Zasshi no. 239, Sept. 10, 1915, 621-632.
* Uhlenhuth P., Fromme W. Zur Aethiologie der sogenannten Weilschen Krankheit. Berl. Klin. Wschr. 53, 1916, 269-273.
* Yamamoto S., Yanagawa R. On strain Ictero No. 1, which was the First Causal Agent of Weil's Disease isolated by Inada and Ido. Proc. Japan Acad. 66 (B), 6, 1990, 1116-120.
* Kmety E. Uber ein Vi-Antigen bei Leptospiren. Zbl. Bakt. Hyg. I. Abt. Orig. A., 221, 1972, 343-351.

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