Abstract
BackgroundCoxiella burnetii causes Q fever, a zoonotic bacterial disease with a multi-host cycle and reservoirs in wild and domestic animal species. Q fever has a significant impact on the Australian public health and economy but its ecology and contributing reservoir species remain poorly understood. In Europe, rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) were identified as a major reservoir of C. burnetii and it is possible that they play a similar role in Australia. In absence of commercial kit available for rabbit, the Thermo Fisher - PrioCHECK™ Ruminant Q fever Ab Plate Kit was adapted to successfully screen rabbits population in Europe. However, this assay is not accessible in Australia and we assessed the equivalency of two commercially available kits in Australia – IDEXX - CHEKIT Q Fever Antibody ELISA kit and IDVet - ID Screen® Q Fever Indirect Multi-species with the Thermo Fisher kit (reference kit).ResultsA total of 94 rabbit sera were screened by all three ELISA kits using the same confirmed positive and negative controls. While the IDEXX kit failed to agree the other two assays (concordance correlation coefficient, rb < 0.77), IDVet kit showed satisfactory equivalency with Thermo Fisher (rb = 0.927).ConclusionIDvet kit provides the best alternative for Thermo Fisher in the detection of C. burnetii specific antibodies in rabbits in Australia. Further trials are required to confirm these preliminary results due to the low seroprevalence of Coxiella burnetii observed in the study sera.
Highlights
Coxiella burnetii causes Q fever, a zoonotic bacterial disease with a multi-host cycle and reservoirs in wild and domestic animal species
Coxiella burnetii is the cause of Q fever or coxiellosis, a zoonotic bacterial disease of public health significance
The life cycle of the C. burnetii include a wide range of host animal species, commonly farm livestocks, which act as reservoirs, transmitting the disease by shedding the bacterium into the environment
Summary
Coxiella burnetii causes Q fever, a zoonotic bacterial disease with a multi-host cycle and reservoirs in wild and domestic animal species. In absence of commercial kit available for rabbit, the Thermo Fisher - PrioCHECKTM Ruminant Q fever Ab Plate Kit was adapted to successfully screen rabbits population in Europe This assay is not accessible in Australia and we assessed the equivalency of two commercially available kits in Australia – IDEXX - CHEKIT Q Fever Antibody ELISA kit and IDVet - ID Screen® Q Fever Indirect Multi-species with the Thermo Fisher kit (reference kit). Coxiella burnetii is the cause of Q fever or coxiellosis, a zoonotic bacterial disease of public health significance. The life cycle of the C. burnetii include a wide range of host animal species, commonly farm livestocks, which act as reservoirs, transmitting the disease by shedding the bacterium into the environment. Other documented reservoir hosts in Australia include bandicoots, kangaroos, possums, cats (feral and domestic) and dogs (wild and domestic) as well as arthropod vectors such as ticks [1]
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