Coxiella burnetii in Humans, Domestic Ruminants, and Ticks in Rural Western Kenya

Abstract

We conducted serological surveys for Coxiella burnetii in archived sera from patients that visited a rural clinic in western Kenya from 2007 to 2008 and in cattle, sheep, and goats from the same area in 2009. We also conducted serological and polymerase chain reaction-based surveillance for the pathogen in 2009–2010, in human patients with acute lower respiratory illness, in ruminants following parturition, and in ticks collected from ruminants and domestic dogs. Antibodies against C. burnetii were detected in 30.9% (N = 246) of archived patient sera and in 28.3% (N = 463) of cattle, 32.0% (N = 378) of goats, and 18.2% (N = 159) of sheep surveyed. Four of 135 (3%) patients with acute lower respiratory illness showed seroconversion to C. burnetii. The pathogen was detected by polymerase chain reaction in specimens collected from three of six small ruminants that gave birth within the preceding 24 hours, and in five of 10 pools (50%) of Haemaphysalis leachi ticks collected from domestic dogs.

Occurrence and Genotyping of Coxiella burnetii in Ixodid Ticks in Oromia, Ethiopia

“…In agreement with our report, a significantly higher prevalence of C. burnetii was recorded in ticks from areas where higher populations of ruminants are kept in Senegal 12 and Kenya. 18 Also in support of our observations, the presence of ticks on animals was reported as the most important risk factor for the occurrence of Q fever and abortion in northern Cyprus. 49 Furthermore, several previous studies linked higher populations of ruminants with outbreaks of Q fever in humans in several countries around the world.…”

“…decoloratus in Kenya. 18 Similarly, C. burnetii has recently been detected in different species of ixodid ticks in France, 34,37 Italy, 38 Spain, 39 Germany, 40 Australia, 41 Argentina, 42 Slovakia and Hungary, 43 Japan, 44 and in eight species of ticks in China. 45 The finding of significantly higher C. burnetii in both Am.…”

“…variegatum from cattle, and 20% of pools from dogs in Kenya. 18 These studies are the only reports available in ticks from Africa.…”

“…16 Included in the few studies from African countries are reports of antibodies against C. burnetii in the sera of 1-24% of humans in 7 west African countries: 17 30.9% of humans, 28.3% of cattle, 18.2% of sheep and 32% of goats in Kenya, 18 24.2% of goats and 18.5% of sheep in Gambia, 19 C. burnetii DNA in the blood of 7.8% of cattle and 7.5% of goats in Tanzania, 20 and 0.3% of febrile patients in Algeria and 0.4% in Senegal 21 . A previous study performed nearly half a century ago in Ethiopia reported the detection of C. burnetii in 5.3% of Amblyomma variegatum and 10.8% of Hyalomma truncatum ticks.…”

Serosurvey ofCoxiella burnetii(Q fever) in Dromedary Camels(Camelus dromedarius)in Laikipia County, Kenya

“…In Chad, a serosurvey of pastoralists and their livestock found that camel breeders had a nine times higher risk of being C. burnetii seropositive compared to the general public (Schelling et al., ). In Kenya, knowledge of Q fever is lacking although two studies found a 26.8% and 30.6% seroprevalence among humans tested for C. burnetii antibodies (Knobel et al., ; Mwololo et al., ). More recent research revealed that 16.2% of febrile patients admitted to hospitals in Northeastern Kenya were suffering from acute Q fever (Njeru et al., ).…”