Abstract

Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii) is a Gram-negative and obligate intracellular bacterium that causes Query fever (Q fever). The aim of the present study was to detect C. burnetii in beef cattle from Ampel slaughterhouse at Boyolali Regency, Middle Java, Indonesia. Spleen, heart, liver, lung, and kidney samples were collected from 100 cattle and used for Nested-PCR (nPCR) with four types of primers (OMP1, OMP2, OMP3, and OMP4). Five stages of pooling extraction were performed on 100 individual samples. The nPCR amplified a 437 bp DNA fragment from the fifth pool on the sampled heart, lung, and spleen. Furthermore, 10 individual samples from the fifth pool were re-tested by nPCR to find out the number of positive individual samples. Of 10 samples, the obtained result indicated the presence of C. burnetii DNA in 7 samples, 6 from Simmental cattle and 1 from Ongole cattle. Therefore, it can be strongly suspected that there are 7 out of 100 local breed beef cattle positive of Q fever at Boyolali Regency, Middle Java, Indonesia.