Q Fever Wildlife Reservoir

摘要

To the Editor: To the list ofzoonotic infections with wildlifesources reported by Kruse et al. (1), Iwould add Coxiella burnetii infectionbecause of its global impact, exten-sive presence in the animal kingdom,and potential for use as an agent ofbioterrorism (2). C. burnetii causes Qfever, a self-limited disease that usual-ly appears as undifferentiated fever,pneumonia, or hepatitis, but whichmay progress into chronic disease,especially endocarditis, among sus-ceptible persons. Q fever is endemicworldwide in domestic mammals,especially ungulates (cattle, sheep,and goats), but also has been found inwild mammals, birds, and arthropods.The transmission of Q fever tohumans from wild rabbits was docu-mented in the 1980s (3). More recent-ly, a study showed seroprevalence ofQ fever ranging from 7% to 53% inbrown rats (Rattus norvegicus) inOxfordshire, which suggests that theyare a possible reservoir for C. burnetiiin the United Kingdom. The studyalso speculated why cats, as frequentpredators of rats, are important inmaintaining the transmission cycle ofthe disease (4).