Abstract
Coxiella burnetii is the agent of Q fever, a zoonosis which occurs worldwide. As there is little reliable data on the organism in China, we investigated C. burnetii infections in dairy cattle herds around the country. Opportunistic whole blood samples were collected from 1140 dairy cattle in 19 herds, and antibodies to phase I and II C. burnetii antigens were detected using commercial ELISA kits. Seropositive cattle (381/1140, 33 %) were detected in 13 of the 15 surveyed provinces and in 16 of the 19 herds (84 %) studied. Our data indicates C. burnetii is widespread in China and that animal and human health workers should be aware of the possibility of Q fever infection in their patients.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, P. R. China (http://jsycw.ec.js.edu.cn) and a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No: 31272575]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Protocols for the collection of animal samples were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Yangzhou University College of Veterinary Medicine. The animal owners gave written permission for the collection of the whole blood samples.
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El-Mahallawy, H.S., Kelly, P., Zhang, J. et al. High seroprevalence of Coxiella burnetii in dairy cattle in China. Trop Anim Health Prod 48, 423–426 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-015-0968-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-015-0968-3