High prevalence of  Coxiella burnetii  infection in humans and livestock in Assiut, Egypt: A serological and molecular survey

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background and Aim:

Q fever is considered a neglected zoonotic disease and is caused by Coxiella burnetii. Very little information is available on C. burnetii infections in cattle, sheep, and goat populations in Egypt. The aim of this study was to identify the seroprevalence of C. burnetii in humans and livestock and to test for the presence of C. burnetii DNA in sera from seropositive animals and humans.

Materials and Methods:

Blood samples were collected from 160 apparently healthy farm animals and 120 patients from three hospitals of the Assiut Governorate throughout 2017/2018. These populations were tested for antibodies against C. burnetii phase II antigen by immunofluorescence assay [IFA] and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Seropositive samples were subjected to real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).

Results:

The results of the IFA revealed C. burnetii seroprevalence rates of 45.3%, 56.0%, 45.7%, and 53.3% in cattle, sheep, goats, and humans, respectively. In humans, the seroprevalence rates were 52.1%, 30.4%, 37.5%, 74.1%, and 62.5% in patients with fever of unknown origin, influenza, kidney dialysis, hepatitis C virus, and hepatitis B virus, respectively. Likewise, by ELISA, the seroprevalence in bovine was 50.7%; sheep, 60.0%; goats, 51.4%; and humans, 55.0% (54.3%, 30.4%, 37.5%, 77.8%, and 62.5% in patients with fever of unknown origin, influenza, kidney dialysis, hepatitis C virus, and hepatitis B virus, respectively). RT-qPCR targeting the repetitive element IS1111 confirmed the presence of C. burnetii DNA.

Conclusion:

These results proved that apparently healthy cattle, sheep, and goats may be very important reservoirs of C. burnetii infection. In light of these data, the effect of Q fever on the replication of hepatitis virus remains unclear. Although hepatitis is one of the main aspects of acute Q fever, the influence of hepatitis on Q fever remains to be investigated. Q fever is not a reportable disease in Egypt, and clinical cases may rarely be recognized by the health-care system. Additional information on the epidemiology of C. burnetii in Egypt is warranted, including other associated problems such as the distribution of infections, pathologic hallmarks, and molecular typing.

Related collections

Most cited references 73

Record: found
Abstract: not found
Article: not found

Animal Communication: When I’m Calling You, Will You Answer Too?

Neil Vickers (2017)

0 comments Cited 505 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

From Q Fever to Coxiella burnetii Infection: a Paradigm Change.

Carole Eldin, Clea Melenotte, Oleg Mediannikov … (2017)

Coxiella burnetii is the agent of Q fever, or "query fever," a zoonosis first described in Australia in 1937. Since this first description, knowledge about this pathogen and its associated infections has increased dramatically. We review here all the progress made over the last 20 years on this topic. C. burnetii is classically a strict intracellular, Gram-negative bacterium. However, a major step in the characterization of this pathogen was achieved by the establishment of its axenic culture. C. burnetii infects a wide range of animals, from arthropods to humans. The genetic determinants of virulence are now better known, thanks to the achievement of determining the genome sequences of several strains of this species and comparative genomic analyses. Q fever can be found worldwide, but the epidemiological features of this disease vary according to the geographic area considered, including situations where it is endemic or hyperendemic, and the occurrence of large epidemic outbreaks. In recent years, a major breakthrough in the understanding of the natural history of human infection with C. burnetii was the breaking of the old dichotomy between "acute" and "chronic" Q fever. The clinical presentation of C. burnetii infection depends on both the virulence of the infecting C. burnetii strain and specific risks factors in the infected patient. Moreover, no persistent infection can exist without a focus of infection. This paradigm change should allow better diagnosis and management of primary infection and long-term complications in patients with C. burnetii infection.

0 comments Cited 185 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

Coxiella burnetii associated reproductive disorders in domestic animals-a critical review

Jørgen Agerholm (2013)

The bacterium Coxiella burnetii has been detected in the fetal membranes, birth fluids and vaginal mucus, as well as in the milk and other excretions of several domestic mammals. The finding of C. burnetii in association with abortion, parturition and in the postpartum period has led to the hypothesis that C. burnetii causes a range of reproductive diseases. This review critically evaluates the scientific basis for this hypothesis in domestic mammals. The review demonstrates a solid evidence for the association between C. burnetii infection and sporadic cases of abortion, premature delivery, stillbirth and weak offspring in cattle, sheep and goats. C. burnetii induced in-herd epidemics of this complete expression of reproductive failure have been reported for sheep and goats, but not for cattle. The single entities occur only as part of the complex and not as single events such as generally increased stillbirth rate. Studies show that C. burnetii initially infects the placenta and that subsequent spread to the fetus may occur either haematogenous or by the amniotic-oral route. The consequences for the equine, porcine, canine and feline conceptus remains to the elucidated but that infection of the conceptus may occur is documented for most species. There is no solid evidence to support a hypothesis of C. burnetii causing disorders such as subfertility, endometritis/metritis, or retained fetal membranes in any kind of domestic animal species. There is a strong need to validate non-pathology based methods such as polymerase chain reaction for their use in diagnostic and research in relation to establishing C. burnetii as the cause of abortion and to adapt an appropriate study design and include adequate control animals when linking epidemiological findings to C. burnetii or when evaluating effects of vaccination in production herds.

0 comments Cited 81 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Vet World

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Vet World

Title: Veterinary World

Publisher: Veterinary World (India )

ISSN (Print): 0972-8988

ISSN (Electronic): 2231-0916

Publication date (Print): December 2020

Publication date (Electronic): 05 December 2020

Volume: 13

Issue: 12

Pages: 2578-2586

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Microbiology, Microbiologist at South Egypt Cancer Institute of Assiut University. Egypt

[2 ]Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt

[3 ]Department of Reproductive Diseases, Animal Reproduction Research Institute, Animal Research Centre, Giza, Egypt

[4 ]Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt

[5 ]Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

[6 ]Department of Anatomy, Embryology and Histology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Assiut University, Egypt

Author notes

Corresponding author: Salah Abdel Kareem Selim, e-mail: drsalahsleim54@ 123456gmail.com Co-authors: HA: hypyabbass@ 123456yahoo.com , MMS: monagabr17@ 123456yahoo.com , MAE: elmokhtarma@ 123456aun.edu.eg , ME: mahmoud_elhariri@ 123456cu.edu.eg , HHA: hhnnzz91@ 123456aun.edu.eg

Article

Publisher ID: Vetworld-13-2578

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2578-2586

PMC ID: 7811535

PubMed ID: 33487974

SO-VID: 1cc9887f-1260-4e09-9804-5089e4d0e832

License:

Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

High prevalence of Coxiella burnetii infection in humans and livestock in Assiut, Egypt: A serological and molecular survey

Read this article at

Abstract

Background and Aim:

Materials and Methods:

Results:

Conclusion:

Related collections

Horses and Humans Research Foundation

Most cited references 73

Animal Communication: When I’m Calling You, Will You Answer Too?

From Q Fever to Coxiella burnetii Infection: a Paradigm Change.

Coxiella burnetii associated reproductive disorders in domestic animals-a critical review

Author and article information

Journal

Affiliations

Author notes

Article

History

Categories

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 260

Cited by 8

Most referenced authors 743