The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has said that improvements to its diagnostics for the organism coxiella burnetii has resulted in increased identification of Q fever in cattle in Ireland.
Q fever is a disease caused by coxiella burnetii that can effect cattle, sheep, goats, domestic animals, and humans.
Infection is caused by the inhalation of spores from the milk, urine, feces or other bodily fluids of infected animals.
In ruminant animals, Q fever mainly affects the reproductive system. Thus, it can cause abortions, premature births, stillbirths, and the birth of weak offspring (in humans, the disease mainly effects the respiratory system, in which clinical signs of Q fever usually present as flu-like systems).
In Ireland, the department’s network of regional veterinary laboratories tests for the presence of coxiella burnetii, following submission of samples via farmer requests linked to a veterinary referral.
A number of cases of Q fever have been confirmed as a result, the department told Agriland.
The department also said that ongoing improvements to the department’s diagnostics for this organism in the past three years, based on PCR testing, has resulted in increased identification in more bovine abortions.
However, the department also said that a positive PCR test does not confirm that the abortion was caused by coxiella burnetii, as the bacteria may be present without causing abortion, and there is likely to be significant variation in the sensitivity and specificity of the test result, related to the quality of the sample material available.
Preliminary figures currently being compiled and analysed by the department, but not yet published, indicate that approximately 4% of Irish bovine foetuses tested in regional veterinary laboratories by PCR testing methods in 2022 and 2023 were positive for coxiella burnetii.
However, the department said that these figures are based on voluntary submissions of samples, and, therefore, the data does not provide an actual incident rate of Q fever.