This WP will coordinate the prospective sampling of ruminants, primarily birth materials and vaginal swabs, but also from wildlife, in years 1 and 2 of the project through Q fever surveillance laboratories in the partner countries. Standardised C. burnetii diagnosis and collection of meta-data from farmer and veterinarians will include routine testing for concurrent abortifacients. Established links with human reference laboratories will allow prospective collection of human clinical samples. The Q-Net-Assess workflow will primarily involve quantitative PCR (qPCR), with samples with high bacterial loads selected for isolation in WP2. In addition, direct MinION sequencing will be evaluated for its ability to rapidly characterise C. burnetii and other abortifacients from samples without need for isolation. This WP will also collate information on existing archived samples with high levels of C. burnetii for isolation in WP2 and previously isolated strains for sequencing in WP3.
It is anticipated that at least 150 C. burnetii ruminant abortion cases will be analysed (target of 75 per year) and 24-36 C. burnetii positive human samples per country per year (2-3 human samples per year for each of the six participating countries, with samples collected by national human reference laboratories and sent to relevant project partners). Furthermore, partners have 143 C. burnetii isolates from previous studies already available from different hosts including humans (n=7), and a further 272 clinical samples with high bacterial load (Ct < 30). Therefore, we are confident that we will have sufficient numbers of C. burnetii isolates representing current and historically circulating strains for downstream analyses in WP3-4.
WP1 leads
Dr. Rene van den Brom
René is the manager of the department for small ruminant, equine, and companion health at Royal GD, Netherlands. He is also a veterinary specialist in small ruminant health management with an interest in health surveillance of small ruminants and infectious causes of abortion in small ruminants.
Dr. Ana Hurtado
Ana is a Principal Investigator in the Department of Animal Health at Neiker – Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, Spain. Her work is focused on developing and improving diagnostic and characterization methods of zoonotic infectious agents of importance in animal health.
