2Núcleo de Biotecnologia, Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico, Universidade Federal de Pelotas,

Two Leptospira sp. isolates were obtained by the first time from goats in Brazil and characterized by sequencing rrs, rpoB and secY genes, PFGE and typing with monoclonal antibodies. Both isolates are identical and belong to Leptospira santarosai. Analysis of the rrs and the rpoB genes sequences re-vealed 100 % identity between the goat isolates and the Bananal reference strain. When secY se-quences of the two isolates were compared to each other, it was observed that they had identical sequences. However, when compared to that of the Bananal reference strain, there were 15 mis-matches along the 549 bp secY sequence. In conclusion, molecular methods are increasingly useful for the characterization of leptospires and allowed to identify those isolates of caprine origin as closely related but not identical to serovar Bananal, and constitute a new type named Carioca