[Aspects seroepidemiological studies on Q fever in unvaccinated dairy cattle herds]. / Aspekte seroepidemiologischer Untersuchungen zum Q-Fieber in nicht geimpften Rinderbeständen.

Q fever is a zoonosis distributed worldwide and important in human as well as in veterinary medicine in Germany. In Baden-Wurttemberg, the pathogen is endemic. Usually Q fever is associated with infected sheep flocks. In contrast, however, in the animal disease reporting system (TSN) 88.1% of all listed Q fever infections during the last 12 years have been registered in cattle. Accordingly, in Baden-Württemberg and Freudenstadt 78.3 and, respectively, 62.5% of the Q fever cases were from cattle. Long term studies on appearance of Coxiella burnetii in normal herds of cattle are missing. Increasing vaccination of cattle herds against Q fever with the vaccine approved in Germany (no marker vaccine) complicates the future opportunities to gain data from serological studies. In the present study, a total of 1640 bovine sera taken from unvaccinated, clini- tion against C burnetii for analysis and comparison. The results show, depending on the test, a seroprevalence of 4.3% to 7.4%. Seasonal comparison revealed a significant increase of up to 9%.The month with the highest seroprevalence aver aged over three years was June with a prevalence of 24.7%. Overall, the findings of this study demonstrate that even the high number of entries does not fully capture the true prevalence of Q fever in cattle herds.

[Epidemiological enquiries in two Q fever outbreaks in a community of Baden-Württemberg during 2008 and 2009]. / Epidemiologische Untersuchungen zu zwei Q-Fieber-Ausbrüchen in einer Gemeinde Baden-Württembergs in den Jahren 2008 und 2009.

In 2008 and 2009, two consecutive outbreaks of Q fever in humans were recorded in the district of Freudenstadt, northern Black Forrest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In 2008, a total of 41 persons from a single local community fell ill and were found infected with Coxiella burnetii. Although comprehensive diagnostic and epidemiological outbreak investigations were conducted and control measures taken which included vaccination of ruminants at risk in three parts of the affected community, re-occurrence of the disease in 2009 with further 29 confirmed human Q fever cases could not be prevented. While the origin of infection of the first outbreak was probably a flock of 550 sheep moved in the surrounding of the affected villages, the source of infection for the consecutive outbreak in 2009 could not be identified. It seems possible that meadows contaminated with infectious placenta or birth fluids represented the sources of infection.