Are brucellosis, Q fever and melioidosis potential causes of febrile illness in Madagascar?

Abstract

Brucellosis, Q fever and melioidosis are zoonoses, which can lead to pyrexia. These diseases are often under-ascertained and underreported because of their unspecific clinical signs and symptoms, insufficient awareness by physicians and public health officers and limited diagnostic capabilities, especially in low-resource countries. Therefore, the presence of Brucella spp., Coxiella burnetii and Burkholderia pseudomallei was investigated in Malagasy patients exhibiting febrile illness. In addition, we analyzed zebu cattle and their ticks as potential reservoirs for Brucella and C. burnetii, respectively. Specific quantitative real-time PCR assays (qPCRs) were performed on 1020 blood samples drawn from febrile patients. In total, 15 samples (1.5%) were Brucella-positive, mainly originating from patients without travel history, while DNA from C. burnetii and Bu. pseudomallei was not detected. Anti-C. burnetii antibodies were found in four out of 201 zebu serum samples (2%), whereas anti-Brucella antibodies could not be detected. Brucella DNA was detected in a single zebu sample. Three out of 330 ticks analyzed (1%) were positively tested for C. burnetii DNA but with high Ct values in the qPCR assay. Our data suggest that zebus as well as Amblyomma and Boophilus ticks have to be considered as a natural reservoir or vector for C. burnetii, but the risk of cattle-to-human transmission is low. Since bovine brucellosis does not seem to contribute to human infections in Madagascar, other transmission routes have to be assumed.

Systematic Review of Important Bacterial Zoonoses in Africa in the Last Decade in Light of the ‘One Health’ Concept

“…[20,21,22,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42]; nine reporting on Leptospira spp. [22,26,27,28,43,44,45,46,47]; 13 reporting on Coxiella burnetii [23,24,25,39,40,41,48,49,50,51,52,53,54]; five on Mycobacterium bovis [42,55,56,57,58]; eight on Rickettsia spp. [25,53,54,59,60,61,62,63]; five reporting on Anaplasma spp.…”

“…[67,68] and Borrelia spp. [69,70]; one each reporting on Yersinia pestis [29], Bacillus anthracis [71], Francisella tularensis [30], Ehrlichia canis [53] and Burkholderia pseudomallei [40]; and six studies reporting on other zoonotic pathogens including Salmonella [72,73,74,75] and Campylobacter [76,77] (Table 2). Fourteen studies reported on human zoonoses, 33 were reports on animals, while 11 studies reported on both humans and animals (Table 2).…”

“…There was no diagnosis of brucellosis by the hospital clinical team even though study participants with brucellosis were given antibiotics or antimalarials in the hospital [21]. Using blood samples, Boone et al (2017), investigated the causes of febrile illness in Madagascar, and found a 1.5% detection rate for Brucella [40]. It is the first report of brucellosis in febrile patients reported in Madagascar [40].…”

“…Using blood samples, Boone et al (2017), investigated the causes of febrile illness in Madagascar, and found a 1.5% detection rate for Brucella [40]. It is the first report of brucellosis in febrile patients reported in Madagascar [40]. Chipwaza et al (2015) investigated the prevalence of bacterial febrile illnesses in Tanzania, and found that 7.0% and 15.4% showed presumptive acute brucellosis due to B. abortus and B. melitensis , respectively [22].…”

Seroprevalence of Leptospira spp. Infection in Cattle from Central and Northern Madagascar

“…All blood samples were left to clot at ambient temperature before the serum was collected and stored at −20 °C. Samples of these animals were investigated prior to the present work in the scope of a study on different zoonotic diseases [13,14,15].…”