Journal
TRENDS IN PARASITOLOGY
Volume 31, Issue 11, Pages 536-552Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2015.06.014
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Funding
- LABEX ECOFECT of the Universite de Lyon within the program 'Investissements d'Avenir' [ANR-11-LABX-0042, ANR-11-IDEX-0007]
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Q fever is a widespread zoonotic disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, a ubiquitous intracellular bacterium infecting humans and a variety of animals. Transmission is primarily but not exclusively airborne, and ticks are usually thought to act as vectors. We argue that, although ticks may readily transmit C. burnetii in experimental systems, they only occasionally transmit the pathogen in the field. Furthermore, we underscore that many Coxiella-like bacteria are widespread in ticks and may have been misidentified as C. burnetii. Our recommendation is to improve the methods currently used to detect and characterize C. burnetii, and we propose that further knowledge of Coxiella-like bacteria will yield new insights into Q fever evolutionary ecology and C. burnetii virulence factors.
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