Q fever [coxlella burnet II] lamong man and farm animals in North Sinai, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Antibodies against Coxiella burnetii were estimated among sheep, goats and camels [190], their owners [150 patients with pyrexia of unknown origin] and 30 normal individuals in North Sinai over the 2006 by indirect immounofluorescence assay. Nested polymerase chain reaction was used to detect Com-1 gene [genetic target of C. burnetii] encoding a 27-kDa outer membrane protein in the samples. C. burnetii IFA antibodies [IgM and IgG] in patients were 8 [5.3%] and a healthy control [3.3%]. The overall was 9 of 180 [5.0%]. C. burnetii IgM were detected in 3/150 [2%] patients with positive genome, while IgG were detected in 5/150 patients, only the three who had IgM and IgG had positive genome suffered high fever. C. burnetii antibodies were detected in 20 [22.5%], 12 [16.8%] and 4 [13.3%] of sheep, goats, camels, which total 36/190 [18.9%]. The positive genome of these IFA positive animals was 10 [50.0%], 4 [33.3%] and zero [0.0%] respectively. On the other hand, Rhi-picephalus sanguineus [dog tick] and Dermacentor andersoni [wood tick] were identified on some Q fever infected animals. The results were discussed