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Review
. 2022 Nov 25;11(12):1703.
doi: 10.3390/biology11121703.

Role of Goats in the Epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii

Sofia Anastácio  1   2 , Sérgio Ramalho de Sousa  1 , Maria José Saavedra  3   4 , Gabriela Jorge da Silva  2   5
Affiliations
Review

Role of Goats in the Epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii

Sofia Anastácio et al. Biology (Basel). .

Abstract

Since its first description in the late 1930s, Q fever has raised many questions. Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent, is a zoonotic pathogen affecting a wide range of hosts. This airborne organism leads to an obligate, intracellular lifecycle, during which it multiplies in the mononuclear cells of the immune system and in the trophoblasts of the placenta in pregnant females. Although some issues about C. burnetii and its pathogenesis in animals remain unclear, over the years, some experimental studies on Q fever have been conducted in goats given their excretion pattern. Goats play an important role in the epidemiology and economics of C. burnetii infections, also being the focus of several epidemiological studies. Additionally, variants of the agent implicated in human long-term disease have been found circulating in goats. The purpose of this review is to summarize the latest research on C. burnetii infection and the role played by goats in the transmission of the infection to humans.

Keywords: C. burnetii; genotype; outbreaks; prevalence; zoonosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scheme representing the internalization of phase I SCV of C. burnetii by monocyte-like cells.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Diagram of the intracellular lifecycle of C. burnetii. CCV—Coxiella-containing vacuole; SCV—small cell variant; LCV—large cell variant.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Rates of confirmed human cases of Q fever in four European Countries from 2010 to 2019 [148,149,150].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Number of Q fever outbreaks in goats reported in European countries from 2005 to 2021 and linear trend line [8].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

S.A. received a Ph.D. fellowship (SFRH/BD/77823/2011) by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Authors were supported by CNC UIDB/04539/2020; CITAB UIDB/04033/2020 and Inov4Agro LA/P/0126/2020.

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