Department of Bacteriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
PLoS One. 2021 Apr 14;16(4):e0250116. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250116. eCollection 2021.
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.
贝氏柯克斯体是 Q 热的病原体，Q 热是一种高度传染性的人畜共患病。贝氏柯克斯体已成为家畜流产的最重要原因之一，可导致这些动物广泛流产。在伊朗，关于动物流产病例中贝氏柯克斯体感染的流行情况的研究非常有限。本研究旨在调查伊朗反刍动物流产样本中贝氏柯克斯体的发生情况。
从伊朗不同地区采集牛、绵羊和山羊的流产样本，并使用针对贝氏柯克斯体 IS1111 元件的实时 PCR 进行检测。
在这项研究中，从 146 个采集样本中，有 36 个（24.7%）样本对贝氏柯克斯体呈阳性。绵羊样本中贝氏柯克斯体的流行率为 21.3%（20/94 样本）。另外，46 个牛样本中有 10 个呈阳性。6 个山羊流产样本均对贝氏柯克斯体呈阳性。
研究结果表明，贝氏柯克斯体在伊朗国内反刍动物流产中起重要作用，这表明兽医组织应更加关注贝氏柯克斯体在国内动物流产中的作用。还应考虑因动物流产而传播感染给人类的风险。
