Seroreactivity and Risk Factors Associated with Coxiella burnetii Infection among Cattle Slaughterhouse Workers in South Korea

Ji-Hyuk Park, Seon Do Hwang, Dilaram Acharya, Seung Hun Lee, Kyu Jam Hwang, Seok-Ju Yoo and Kwan Lee
Additional contact information
Ji-Hyuk Park: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju 38066, Korea
Seon Do Hwang: Division of Zoonoses, Center for Immunology and Pathology, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cheongju 28159, Korea
Dilaram Acharya: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju 38066, Korea
Seung Hun Lee: Division of Zoonoses, Center for Immunology and Pathology, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cheongju 28159, Korea
Kyu Jam Hwang: Division of Zoonoses, Center for Immunology and Pathology, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cheongju 28159, Korea
Seok-Ju Yoo: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju 38066, Korea
Kwan Lee: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju 38066, Korea

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-9

Abstract: Q fever, caused by Coxiella burnetii , is a zoonotic disease that is an occupational hazard to people who work in close contact with animals or their carcasses. A nationwide serologic study among cattle slaughterhouse workers who were presumed to be at risk of having C. burnetii infection in South Korea was performed to investigate the seroreactivity of C. burnetii infection and identify related risk factors. Out of 1017 cattle slaughterhouse workers in South Korea, 923 (90.8%) participated in this cross-sectional study. Samples were tested for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) antibodies against phase II C. burnetii via indirect immunofluorescence assay. The overall seroreactivity, defined as IgG or IgM antibody titer cutoffs ≥1:16, was 9.1% (84/923). Additionally, a significant association was found between the seroreactivity of C. burnetii infection and performing carcass evisceration work (odds ratio, 2.36; 95% confidence interval, 1.39–4.03) in multivariate analysis. To diminish C. burnetii infection, cattle slaughterhouse workers need to take precautions during the evisceration process.

Keywords: Coxiella burnetii; slaughterhouse; serologic tests; risk factors; South Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2264/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2264/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2264-:d:175930

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().