Prevalence and risk factors associated with Q fever infection in slaughterhouse workers in Fars province, Iran

Awareness and Community Engagement in Zoonotic Disease Management

“…Because of their employment, wildlife rehabilitators in Australia are at a greater risk of contracting Q fever, a zoonotic disease (Mathews et al 2023). Workers in slaughterhouses are at a high risk of contracting Q fever, underscoring the occupational risk connected with zoonotic infections (Zakeri et al 2023). Human-animal contact rates and the danger of contact with possible zoonotic disease reservoirs can be influenced by agricultural landscapes (Klim et al 2023).…”

“…Risk factors such as a lack of piped water, intake of raw animal products, and occupational exposure to animals with diseases all contribute to the spread and persistence of zoonotic illnesses. (Gerken et al 2023;Zakeri et al 2023). Observational studies aid in the identification of modifiable risk factors and the development of responses (Jackson et al 2023).…”

Seroprevalence of Coxiella burnetii in Occupational Settings: A Meta-Analysis of Italian Studies

“…Q Fever (QF) is a zoonotic infectious disease with global distribution caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) [1,2], a small (0.2 to 0.4 µm × 0.4 to 1.0 µm) gram-negative pathogen belonging to the Coxiellaceae family [3]. C. burnetii infects a wide range of domesticated and wild animals, and human cases result from contact via airborne routes, after the organism settles in dust and becomes aerosolized [3][4][5].…”

“…Since its discovery in 1935 among Australian abattoir workers [3,11,12], QF has been characterized as an occupational infectious diseases associated with the livestock industry, laboratory personnel [5,11,12], and, in general, with occupational tasks leading to the close contact with animals [13], particularly sheep and goats [13,14], as the pathogen largely remains both uncontrolled and highly prevalent in livestock [3]. In these settings, seroprevalence can range from 30% to 70% [1].…”

“…Interestingly, not only is the notification of QF mandatory in Germany and voluntary in France, but the very same case definition is quite heterogenous [23,24]. In other words, the occasional absence of symptoms, the low clinical suspicion, and the need for serological diagnostic tests, all of them characterized by different techniques and cut-off points, may lead to general underdiagnosis of this disease [5,23,26]. In turn, the underestimation of the actual QF burden may lead to the inappropriate definition of preventive measures, even in high-risk groups, ultimately leading to the persistence of this disorders as an occupational health threat [2,4,13,15,16].…”