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

Vet World Vol.13 December-2020 Article-1

Research Article

Veterinary World, 13(12): 2578-2586

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.2578-2586

Hypy Abbass^1,2, Salah Abdel Kareem Selim², Mona M. Sobhy³, Mohamed A. El-Mokhtar⁴, Mahmoud Elhariri⁵, and Hanan H. Abd-Elhafeez⁶

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.

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. Keywords: apparently healthy farm animals and humans, Coxiella burnetii, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, hepatitis C and B, immunofluorescence assay, Q fever, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

Keywords: apparently healthy farm animals and humans, Coxiella burnetii, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, hepatitis C and B, immunofluorescence assay, Q fever, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

How to cite this article: Abbass H, Selim SAK, Sobhy MM, El-Mokhtar MA, Elhariri M, Abd-Elhafeez HH (2020) High prevalence of Coxiella burnetii infection in humans and livestock in Assiut, Egypt: A serological and molecular survey, Veterinary World, 13(12): 2578-2586.

Received: 26-06-2020 Accepted: 16-10-2020 Published online: 05-12-2020

Corresponding author: Salah Abdel Kareem Selim E-mail: drsalahsleim54@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2578-2586

Copyright: Abbass, et al. This article is an open access article 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.