Molecular epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii in human, animals and ticks in Bangladesh

Q fever, caused by Coxiella burnetti is a well recognised zoonotic disease around the world which is endemic in many countries. In Bangladesh, a very few information is available in men and animals about this disease. Thus, the objective of this study is to determine the presence of Q fever in animal (goat and cattle) and human population including the tick which is a vector of the disease. A total of 172 animals with abortion and reproductive disorder history were collected from Shahjadpur Upazilla of Sirajgonj district in Bangladesh. 150 sera samples from patients of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital were collected which had a history of pyrexia. 127 tick samples were collected from the body of animals randomly. The samples were tested with CHEKIT Q-Fever antibody Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Test Kit (indirect ELISA) primarily and the positive sere were retested by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect DNA of C. burnetii. Indirect ELISA revealed the prevalence result of 6.97 and 0% in animals and humans, respectively and only one tick was Reverse transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) positive (0.79%). It is thus observed that this is the first time the presence of C. burnetii in ticks using real time PCR is reported.