Query (Q) fever is an ubiquitous zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii. The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of C. burnetii in apparently healthy sheep, goats and farm workers. Raw milk and serum samples were randomly collected from 200 sheep, goats (100 of each) and 30 farm workers from Qaluobia governorate, Egypt during 2014/2015. The milk and serum samples were investigated for IgG antibodies against C. burnetii phase II antigen by indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT). The seropositive samples were confirmed by touch –down PCR with specific primers which amplify transposon-like region of C. burnetti. The results showed that antibodies against C. burnetii in sheep raw milk and sera were 17% and 23% respectively, in goat raw milk and sera were 19% and 27% respectively and in human was 23.3% . PCR targeting IS1111 gene confirmed the presence of C. burnetti DNA in sheep and goats raw milk and sera were 82.4%, 89.5%, 91.3% and 85.2% respectively and in farm workers was 57.1%. These results proved that the apparently healthy sheep and goats are an important reservoir of C.burnetii infection. The farm workers constitute an occupational risk group for C. burnetii infection, for their contact with infected livestock. ©2016, IOSI, All Right Reserved.
Email; fatmaelhofy@yahoo.com Key words: Coxiella burnetii, sheep, goats, farm workers, IFAT, touch –down PCR. Egypt
INTRODUCTION
Q fever is a zoonotic disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, a small obligate intracellular Gram-negative pathogen worldwide spread, except New Zealand (Maurin and Raoult, 1999 ; YinMing-Yang et al., 2015 ). Sheep and goats are considered as the main reservoir of infection for man, like cattle. The most common pathological manifestations of chronic Q fever are abortions and stillbirths. In sheep and goat flocks with reproductive disorders, animals contemporarily shed the bacterium through vaginal mucus, feces and milk. In a recent work, goats have been shown to eliminate C. burnetii mostly through milk while sheep mainly through vaginal mucous or feces (Rodolakis, 2009). C. burnetii was a cause of abortion waves at 28 dairy goat farms and 2 dairy sheep farms in the Netherlands (Van den Brom et a |
