Special Veterinary Pathology

Q - FEVER

Definition

• It is a febrile disease of slaughter house workers

Incidence

• First reported in Queens land, Australia & reported world wide

Etiology

• Coxiella brunetti (Rickettsia brunetti) – minute pleomorphic rods within cytoplasm of cells

Transmission

• Humans acquire infection by contact with freshly slaughtered cattle or sheep or consuming raw milk or butter
• High concentration of organism is seen in placenta

Clinical signs and lesions

• Clinical signs are inapparent or mild
• Organism have been recovered from cows without clinical signs and lesions
• In humans, interstitial pneumonia and disseminated epitheloid granulomas

Diagnosis

• Isolation and identification or organism by inoculation of guinea pigs
• Tissues stained with Giemsa – Machiavello methods