Term of Award
Summer 2004
Degree Name
Master of Science in Biology (M.S.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Biology
Committee Chair
Quentin Q. Fang
Committee Member 1
William S. Irby
Committee Member 2
Lance A. Durden
Abstract
Author's abstract: Q-fever is a zoonosis caused by a worldwide-distributed bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Ticks are vectors of the Q-fever agent but play a secondary role in transmission because the agent is also transmitted via aerosols. Most Q-fever studies have focused on farm animals but not ticks collected from dogs in animal shelters. In order to detect the Q-fever agent in these ticks, a nested PCR technique targeting the 16S rDNA of Coxiella burnetii was used. A collection of 450 ticks from the animal shelter were screened via nested PCR and 144 (32%) were positives. The positive PCR products were also confirmed by DNA sequencing. This is the first report of the prevalence of the Q-fever agent in ticks from an animal shelter. The results are significant to public health. Highly infected ticks in animal shelters may transmit the Q-fever agent to humans via its feces, excretion, or by biting.
Recommended Citation
Smoyer, John H. III, "The Prevalence of the Q-fever Agent Coxiella burnetii in Ticks Collected from an Animal Shelter in Southeast Georgia" (2004). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1002.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1002
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
Included in
Immunology of Infectious Disease Commons, Other Animal Sciences Commons, Parasitology Commons
