Seroprevalence of q fever in dairy cows in farms from selected states in malaysia

oxiella burnetii. The disease mostly affects small ruminants and occasionally in large ruminants such as cattle. Dairy animals, especially dairy cattle shed the organism in raw milk that could be consumed by humans thus causing direct oral transmission of the bacteria to humans. This study was carried out to investigate the status of Q fever in Malaysia among dairy cattle herds in selected states. About 120 serum samples were collected from dairy farms across several states in Malaysia. All samples were tested using an indirect ELISA test kit for the detection of antibodies against C. burnetii. The results showed Pahang has the most seropositive of Q fever (11.76 %) followed by Johor (8.82%), Perak (3.45%) and lastly Sabah (0%). The results conclude that dairy cattle is likely to have minimum risk of contracting C. burnetti infection, however care must be properly taken whilst handling the animals due to its potential zoonotic exposure to farmers.

Keywords: zoonotic, bacteria, ruminants, dairy, antibodies