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AUSTRALIAN "Q" FEVER DISEASE

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This disease was first recognized in Australia especially among workers who handled meat and in slaughterhouses. The causative agent was Rickettsia burneti. In North America under the name of Nine Mile Fever the infectious agent was isolated from the tick Dermacentor andersoni. but given the name of Rickettsia diaporica, which later was found to be identical to R. burneti. (Matheson 1950). Subsequently these names were dropped and the current name is Coxiella burnetii (Service 2008). Transovarial and transstadial transmission are known to occur.

The principal reservoir host in Australia is the bandicoot rat, Isodon torosus. The tick Haemaphysalis humeroso was the main vector. Although this tick species only bites humans infrequently it is thought that it maintains the reservoir and that Ixodes holocyclus (a frequent biter of humans) is a primary vector. Other potential tick vectors are Haemaphysalis bispinosa and Rhipicephalus sanguineus.

The rickettsiae develop in the epithelium lining of the intestines of the tick so that the lumen and fecal wastes are highly charged. The feces are highly infectious even when dry, especially to broken or injured skin. Transmission is only through fecal wastes of infected ticks entering the wounds or by way of the respiratory tract.

In North America Coxiella burnetii has been isolated from the ticks Dermacentor andersoni, D. occidentalis and Amblyomma americanum, and Otobius megnini.

Matheson (1950) reported that during World War II outbreaks of "Q" fever occurred among soldiers in Italy and the Balkans. Studies indicated the existence of several closely related strains of the Rickettsia.

Control involves precautionary behavior, especially avoiding inhalation around infected animals and carcasses.

LIFE CYCLE: Australian "Q" Fever

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Key References: <medvet.ref.htm> <Hexapoda>

Camicas, J. L., J. . Hervy, F. Adam & P. C. Morel. 1998. The ticks of the world (Acarida, Ixodida): Nomenclature, Described Stages, Hosts,

Distribution. Paris: Editions de l'ORSTOM.

Cox, H. R. 1940. Rickettsia diaporica & American "Q" fever. Amer. J. Trop. Med. 20: 463-469.

Davis, Gordon E. 1943. American Q fever; experimental transmission by the argasid ticks Ornithodoros moubata and O. hermsi.

U. S. Pub. Hlth. Repts 58: 984-987.

Derrick, E. H. 1939. "Q" fever entity. Med. J. Australia 2: 281-299.

Derrick, E. H. 1939. Rickettsia burneti: the cause of "Q" fever. Med. J. Australia 2: 14.

Derrick, E. H. 1944. The epidemiology of "Q" fever. J. Hyg. 43: 357-361.

Gammons, M. & G. Salam. 2002. Tick removal. Amer. Fam. Physician 66: 643-45.

Gothe, R., K. Kunze & H. Hoogstraal. 1979. The mechanisms of pathogenicity in the tick paralyses. J. Med. Ent. 16: 357-69.

Hoogstraal, H. 1966. Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by viruses. Ann. Rev. Ent. 11: 261-308.

Hoogstraal, H. 1967. Ticks in relation to human diseases caused by Rickettsia species. Ann. Rev. Ent. 12: 377-420.

Matheson, R. 1950. Medical Entomology. Comstock Publ. Co, Inc. 610 p.

Needham, G. R. & P. D. Teel. 1991. Off-host physiological ecology of ixodid ticks. Ann. Rev. Ent. 36: 313-52.

Parola, P. & D. Raoult. 2001. Tick-borne typhuses. IN: The Encyclopedia of arthropod-transmitted Infections of Man and Domesticated

Animals. ed. M. W. Service, Wallingford: CABI: pp. 516-24.

Service, M. 2008. Medical Entomology For Students. Cambridge Univ. Press. 289 p.

Sonenshine, D. E., R. S. Lane & W. L. Nicholson. 2002. Ticks (Ixodida). IN: Medical & Veterinary Entomology, ed. G. Mullen & L. Durden,

Ambsterdam Acad. Press. pp 517-58.

Sonenshine, D. E. & T. N. Mather (eds.) 1994. Ecological Dynamics of Tick-Borne Zoonoses. Oxford Univ. Press, New York.

Steer, A., J. Coburn & L. Glickstein. 2005. Lyme borreliosis. IN: Tick-Borne Diseases of Humans, ed. J. L. Goodman, D. T. Dennis & D. E.

Sonenshine. Washington, DC: ASM Press.