High prevalence and two dominant host-specific genotypes of Coxiella burnetii in U.S. milk.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Coxiella burnetii causes Q fever in humans and Coxiellosis in animals; symptoms range from general malaise to fever, pneumonia, endocarditis and death. Livestock are a significant source of human infection as they shed C. burnetii cells in birth tissues, milk, urine and feces. Although prevalence of C. burnetii is high, few Q fever cases are reported in the U.S. and we have a limited understanding of their connectedness due to difficulties in genotyping. Here, we develop canonical SNP genotyping assays to evaluate spatial and temporal relationships among C. burnetii environmental samples and compare them across studies. Given the genotypic diversity of historical collections, we hypothesized that the current enzootic of Coxiellosis is caused by multiple circulating genot

SUBMITTER: Pearson T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3936997 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature