Leptospirosis: New Zealand's No. 1 dairy occupational disease

Abstract

Extract

Thanks to its being a notifiable disease, leptospirosis has been well documented in New Zealand for many years. In his Radio-Doctor series recently, Dr H. B. Turbott stated that the incidence of notification of this disease has doubled over each 5-year interval since the 1950s. A glance at the list of notifications published each month reveals that the greatest number comes from the dairying districts of the country, focal upon the Hamilton Health District. Most occupational diseases in the dairy industry have been eliminated or prevented, nowadays, with leptospirosis remaining the bogyman of people working with milking cattle.