Studies On Q Fever In Farm Animals In Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The serological prevalence of Coxiella burnetii in domestic livestock in Saudi Arabia was studied using two serological tests: indirect enzyme linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as the main test and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) as a confirmatory test and for .comparison with ELISA

A total of 1970 farm animals of both sexes were tested serologically to determine the prevalence of C. burnetii specific IgG antibodies using indirect ELISA. The samples were collected from 489 camel, 428 cattle,

630 sheep and 423 goats. The animals were broadly divided into young and adult animals. All of them were clinically normal when sampled and .none of the adult females was pregnant while some were lactating A total of 605 animals had anti-C. burnetii IgG antibodies in their sera,

giving an overall serological prevalence of Q fever of 30.71% with a mean ELISA titre (S/P ratio or O.D.%) of 103.03%. These results indicate that C. burnetii is common in all species a of farm animals in Saudi Arabia. Camels showed the highest proportion of Q fever (C. burnetii) positive sera among all the species tested, with an overall prevalence of

51.53%. The second highest serological prevalence was recorded in goats (34.04%), followed by cattle (30.61%) and the least in sheep (12.38%). In all species, the serological prevalence of anti-C. burnetii antibodies was

significantly higher in adult compared to young animals (p