Serosurvey ofCoxiella burnetii(Q fever) in Dromedary Camels(Camelus dromedarius)in Laikipia County, Kenya

Abstract

SummaryDromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius) are an important protein source for people in semi‐arid and arid regions of Africa. In Kenya, camel populations have grown dramatically in the past few decades resulting in the potential for increased disease transmission between humans and camels. An estimated four million Kenyans drink unpasteurized camel milk, which poses a disease risk. We evaluated the seroprevalence of a significant zoonotic pathogen, Coxiella burnetii (Q fever), among 334 camels from nine herds in Laikipia County, Kenya. Serum testing revealed 18.6% positive seroprevalence of Coxiella burnetii (n = 344). Increasing camel age was positively associated with C. burnetii seroprevalence (OR = 5.36). Our study confirmed that camels living in Laikipia County, Kenya, have been exposed to the zoonotic pathogen, C. burnetii. Further research to evaluate the role of camels in disease transmission to other livestock, wildlife and humans in Kenya should be conducted.

The sero‐epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii (Q fever) across livestock species and herding contexts in Laikipia County, Kenya

“…We considered four sites as agro‐commercial ranches, three as mixed wildlife conservancies and livestock operations and two as smallholder livestock herds (Figure ). This extends our previous work on camels in this region (Browne et al, ; DePuy et al, ) by examining C. burnetii seropositivity across multiple livestock species and management types.…”

“…This extends our previous work on camels in this region (Browne et al, 2017;DePuy et al, 2014) by examining C. burnetii seropositivity across multiple livestock species and management types.…”

“…We recorded site name, time and GPS location in the logbook along with sex, age, body condition and relevant notes. We assessed the tick burden of all animals by examining the groin, axilla, perineum and ears and assigned each animals to either no ticks, 0–100 ticks, or 100+ ticks (Browne et al, ). A veterinarian assessed females for pregnancy status.…”

“…The green polygons represent agro-commercial ranching operations; the blue represent wildlife and livestock operations; and the olive represent small holder animal herding areas [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] sometimes include mixed herds of cattle, sheep and goats. While they show relatively high understanding of chemical and veterinary products in relation to pathogens they have limited capital available to invest in pharmaceuticals to prevent or treat disease outbreaks (Browne et al, 2017). Thus, the three categories are general proxies for a variety of approaches to animal management and the context within which animals are raised.…”

A Review of Zoonotic Pathogens of Dromedary Camels

“…Another limitation of our review was the absence of certain pivotal papers; this may have been due to the use of Google Scholar as one of the two major search engines. A serosurvey of Q fever in Laikipia County, Kenya, that revealed high seroprevalence 18.6% in dromedaries was one such paper that fit our inclusion and search criteria keywords: camel, zoonotic, human, but did not appear in any searches (Browne et al 2017). A common critique of Google Scholar is the limited ability to sort results, which thus provides evidence that it misses important literature in many case studies (Haddaway et al 2015).…”