Q Fever Research Paper

Coxiellosis, also known as Q fever, is a zoonotic disease that affects caused by a bacterium named Coxiella burnetii which is prevalent in ruminant animals such as cattle, sheep and goats. This disease has established itself all over the world, including places such as the United Kingdom. Clinical symptoms for Q fever are variable making the disease identify itself more as a mild cold and flu-like symptoms while few people show serious health related symptoms resulting in hospitalization and possibly death. Animal infected with Q fever shed the C. burnetii through bodily fluids such as feces, milk, afterbirth which can further infect neonatal livestock and wool. Scientists have determined that it may be another factor other than the bacterium simply entering the body orally which causes infection. Studies may have concluded that genotypes within each species may be the cause of Q fever. This study was completed in order to access the risk of Q fever bacterium through unpasteurized milk products and access how to properly prevent transmission from livestock to humans. Multiple transmission routes have been identified that allow C. burnetii bacterium to infect humans. The direct contact of humans with livestock and/or the environment animals live …show more content…
brunetii to infect other animals through milk, a study was done giving mice and guinea pigs infected samples of unpasteurized milk. Results shown that the mice and guineas pigs were in fact infected with the infectious Q fever bacterium but only at a 50% of the population. This pathogen also does not continue to multiple outside of its environment in the host cell. C. brunetii is very environmentally stable and handles physical stress - such as ultraviolet light and disinfectants – in a spore-like manner, living in the environment for years. It is an extremely hardy bacterium that has a high drive to target macrophages and monocytes, which are seen commonly in the placental