Abstract
Q fever is a zoonosis. Humans are infected through the inhalation of Coxiella burnetii particles that are dispersed into the air from the birth products or faeces of ruminants. Major outbreaks can occur in association with farming activities. C. burnetii can be disseminated by wind up to several tens of kilometres and infect humans far from its zoonotic source. As a result, the sources of sporadic cases are rarely identified. We report a sporadic case of acute Q fever in a French farmer returning from a cruise in the Caribbean. Careful examination found that the infection was not associated with travel, and a veterinary investigation identified C. burnetii DNA (MST genotype 8) in the faeces, nasal and vaginal swabs of several ewes from her herd of sheep. As a consequence, the herd was slaughtered to avoid dissemination of the infection.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Djamel Tahir, Mustapha Dahmani, Annick Abeille, Jean-Michel Bérenger and Philippe Dufour for their assistance.
Funding
This study was supported by the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection, the National Research Agency under the “Investissements d’avenir” programme, reference ANR-10-IAHU-03, the Région Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur and European funding FEDER PRIMI. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
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Medkour, H., Davoust, B., Angelakis, M. et al. A sporadic case of acute Q fever and identification of the animal source of the infection. Folia Microbiol 65, 797–800 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-020-00788-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-020-00788-3