EpidemicsNetherlands battles to contain Q fever outbreak

The Netherlands has struggled to contain an outbreak of Q fever that first began in 2007. Since the outbreak started there have been more than 4,000 confirmed cases of the disease and eleven deaths.

Q fever is a bacterial disease that is passed from animals to humans. Cattle, sheep, and goats are the primary carriers of the Coxiellaburnteii (C. burnetii) bacteria, and humans can become infected by breathing in contaminated air or consuming infected dairy products.

When people become infected they exhibit flu-like symptoms and in rare cases the infection can be fatal.

After more than 2,200 people became sick in 2009, the Dutch government slaughtered over 50,000 goats in an effort to stem the spread of the disease. The government also banned the breeding of sheep for several months after the mass culling.

Some critics say that the mass slaughter was unnecessary and the vaccination program underway was sufficient.

In 2009, the government began a mandatory vaccination program, but it soon ran out of the vaccine leaving large sections of the country un-vaccinated. The slaughter was originally planned for these un-vaccinated goats, but was extended to all animals on affected farms.

It remains unclear whether the vaccinations were successful as the animals that were under observation as test subjects were slaughtered.

C. burnetii is difficult to eradicate as it is impervious to heat and most common disinfectants, allowing it to survive for long periods of time in the environment.

As of 2 February 2011, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had confirmed eight cases for the year.

C. burnetii is common in animals around the world, yet in the Netherlands the bacteria has behaved differently and infected humans at far greater rates.

Veterinarians and epidemiologists from around the world are watching the outbreak closely to learn more about the disease and how it is spreading.

Dr. Paula Menzies, an expert on diseases in farm animals and associate professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada says, “We need to know a lot more about the disease to understand why it’s so different in the Netherlands than the rest of the world.”

According to Menzies, Dutch researchers at the Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) have “broken a lot of new ground so far” in terms of understanding how bacteria is distributed on a large scale as well as determining infection rates by analyzing bacterial levels in milk samples.

Aftera visit last year, Menzieslearned new techniques from Dutch researchers who have radically improved detection techniques. Determining the prevalence of diseases in animals is often difficult as they do not always exhibit symptoms and blood tests have proven problematic.

“In Canada, we’ve been dealing with small outbreaks of disease in animals, but we’ve never done a prevalence survey,” she says. Menzies took these techniques from the Netherlands and implemented them in tests on farm animals and farm workers in Canada.

CVI has also been monitoring the bacteria in domesticated pets and horses, as cats have been identified as the source of infection in other countries including Canada and Japan.

CDC is currently warning U.S. citizens travelling to the Netherlands to stay away from farm animals, to only consume pasteurized dairy products, and to closely monitor their health after their trip.