Molecular detection of Coxiella burnetii infection in aborted samples of domestic ruminants in Iran

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 4; p. e0250116
• Main Authors: Mohabati Mobarez, Ashraf, Khalili, Mohammad, Mostafavi, Ehsan, Esmaeili, Saber
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 14.04.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Abortion; Abortion, Veterinary - epidemiology; Abortion, Veterinary - microbiology; Aerosols; Analysis; Animals; Animals, Domestic - genetics; Asymptomatic; Bacteriology; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomedical research; Cattle; Cattle Diseases - epidemiology; Cattle Diseases - microbiology; Chronic illnesses; Cotyledons; Coxiella burnetii; Coxiella burnetii - genetics; Coxiella burnetii - isolation & purification; Coxiella burnetii - pathogenicity; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Diagnosis; Diseases; DNA; Domestic animals; Drafting software; Editing; Epidemiology; Female; Fetuses; Fever; Funding; Goat Diseases - epidemiology; Goat Diseases - microbiology; Goats; Infections; Infectious diseases; Iran; Laboratories; Livestock - genetics; Livestock - microbiology; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methodology; People and Places; Placenta; Plague; Pregnancy; Q fever; Q Fever - diagnosis; Q Fever - epidemiology; Q Fever - genetics; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction - veterinary; Research facilities; Rickettsia; Ruminants; Ruminants - genetics; Ruminants - microbiology; Sheep; Sheep Diseases - epidemiology; Sheep Diseases - microbiology; Spleen; Tularemia; Veterinarians; Veterinary medicine; Zoonoses; Zoonoses - epidemiology; Iran
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250116

Coxiella burnetii is the causative agent of Q fever which is a highly infectious zoonotic disease. C. burnetii has become one of the most important causes of abortion in livestock, which can lead to widespread abortions in these animals. There are very limited studies on the prevalence of C. burnetii infection in cases of animal abortion in Iran. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of C. burnetii in ruminant abortion samples in Iran. Abortion samples from cattle, sheep and goats were collected from different parts of Iran and were tested using Real-time PCR targeting the IS1111 element of C. burnetii. In this study, 36 samples (24.7%) of the 146 collected samples were positive for C. burnetii. The prevalence of C. burnetii was 21.3% (20 of 94 samples) in sheep samples. Also, 10 of 46 cattle samples (21.7%) were positive. All six goat abortion samples were positive for C. burnetii. The findings of the study demonstrate that C. burnetii plays an important role in domestic ruminant abortions in Iran, suggesting that more attention should be paid to the role of C. burnetii in domestic animal abortions by veterinary organizations. The risk of transmitting the infection to humans due to abortion of animals should also be considered.