Bovine abortion caused by Coxiella burnetii: reportof a cluster of cases in Uruguay and review of the literature

摘要

A cluster of 4 bovine abortions caused by occurred in a dairy herd in Uruguay during a 2-mo period. Case 1 consisted of aplacenta from an aborted cow; cases 2–4 were fetuses and their placentas.Grossly, the placenta from one aborted cow had moderate, diffuse reddening ofthe cotyledons and loss of translucency of the intercotyledonary areas. No grosslesions were observed in the other 3 placentas. Microscopically, 2 of 4placentas had fibrinonecrotizing placentitis with abundant intratrophoblasticgram-negative coccobacilli. was identifiedintralesionally by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in all 4 placentas, and by PCR andDNA sequencing in 3 placentas analyzed by these techniques. One fetus had mildneutrophilic alveolitis with multinucleate syncytial cells; no gross ormicroscopic lesions were observed in the other 2 fetuses examined. The lungs ofthe 3 fetuses were negative for by IHC. Testsperformed to investigate other possible causes of abortions in the 4 cases werenegative. causes Q fever in humans and coxiellosisin animals. Clusters of abortions in cattle by havenot been reported previously, to our knowledge; this bacterium has beenconsidered an opportunistic pathogen associated only with sporadic abortion incattle. We present herein a cluster of 4 bovine abortions caused by in a dairy farm during a period of 2 mo and a review ofthe literature on infection in cattle.