Comparison of three serological tests for the detection of Coxiella burnetii specific antibodies in European wild rabbit
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Comparison of three serological tests for the detection of Coxiella burnetii specific antibodies in European wild rabbits Charles Caraguel1†, Sarah Bassett1†, David González-Barrio2, Peter Elsworth3 and Anne-Lise Chaber1*
Abstract Background: Coxiella 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). Results: A 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). Conclusion: IDvet 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. Keywords: Coxiella burnetii, Q fever, ELISA, Serology, European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus
Background 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. C. burnetii infections in cattle, sheep and goats are ususally asymptomatic but can cause production losses including abortions, infertility, still births, weak offsprings, metritis, mastitis * Correspondence: [email protected] † Charles Caraguel and Sarah Bassett are co-first authors. 1 School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, South Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
and other reproductive disorders [1, 2]. C. burnetii can be shed in the urine, faeces, placental material and milk of infected animals [3]. The organism can persist in the environment in a spore-like form for several months increasing the likelihood of infection of a new host [4]. Heavy rainfall and high winds speeds have been thought to cause the spores to aerosolise facilitating air-bo
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