A New Leptospiral Serovar in the Icterohaemorrhagiae Serogroup Isolated from an Ox in Zimbabwe

A strain of Leptospira interrogans that was isolated from an ox slaughtered in Zimbabwe and belonged to serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae could not be identified when we compared it with 18 reference strains belonging to this serogroup by using cross-agglutinin absorption, monoclonal antibody, and restriction endonuclease DNA analyses. The name zimbabwe is proposed for the new serovar containing this strain; the type strain of this serovar is strain SBF 23.