Berkeley city leadership issued a public health warning on Monday after animals in a homeless encampment tested positive for leptospirosis, a bacterial disease that can be fatal in dogs and humans. City staff discovered the disease was present after testing animals in the vicinity of a homeless encampment on Harrison Street. Berkeley’s Public Health Officer recommended that encampment residents move out of the area as soon as possible, and relocate to at least a third of a mile away due to public health risk caused by the rat infestation transmitting the disease. “The absence of confirmed human cases is reassuring but does not remove the risk of undiagnosed cases or future cases,” Noemi Doohan, Berkeley’s Public Health Officer said in a Jan. 6 court filing. “If a human case were confirmed, that would elevate the urgency of the recommended response to protect human life and other animal life in the city of Berkeley.” The city advises dog owners to vaccinate their pets against leptospirosis, and the wrote the owners of “free roaming cats” should consider the same.