Anthropogenic changes associated with urbanization can bring wildlife species into closer contact with livestock and humans, thereby increasing the risk of pathogen spillover. Recently, urban-adapted (synanthropic) hedgehog species, including Hemiechinus auritus (long-eared) and Paraechinus hypomelas (Brandt's), have been suggested as potential sources of zoonotic pathogens. The increasing number of tick-infested hedgehogs in urban areas and confirmed cases of human rickettsial infections in south-eastern Iran motivated this investigation to identify rickettsial species in ticks collected from hedgehogs to help assess their potential role in spreading tick-borne diseases. So, this study aimed to screen tick pools collected from synanthropic hedgehogs in southeastern Iran for Rickettsia spp. DNA and to perform presumptive species identification using partial gltA sequencing. Among 60 hedgehogs live-trapped and sampled in two cities (Zabol, Kerman), forty of the long-eared and five of Brandt's were tick-infested. We collected 68 ticks from 18 hedgehogs trapped in Zabol and 70 ticks from 27 hedgehogs trapped in Kerman. All collected ticks were adults and were morphologically identified as Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. or Rhipicephalus turanicus. Ticks collected from each individual hedgehog were pooled together and each pool consisted of ticks belonging to a single species collected from one individual hedgehog. Tick-pool DNA extracts were screened for Rickettsia spp. using a genus-level SYBR Green real-time PCR targeting the gltA gene. Screening-positive pools were confirmed by a TaqMan real-time PCR targeting the 16 S rRNA gene, and samples with Ct values < 31 were subjected to conventional PCR for amplification of an 834-bp gltA fragment. Species-level identification was performed based on partial gltA sequencing, BLAST analysis, and phylogenetic comparison. A total of 5 of 45 tick pools (11.1%) were positive for Rickettsia spp. DNA, including four Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. pools and one Rhipicephalus turanicus pool. Based on partial gltA sequencing, two positive pools were assigned as presumptive Rickettsia sibirica, two as presumptive Rickettsia rhipicephali, and one Rh. turanicus pool showed mixed detection of both species.The presence of Rickettsia spp. DNA in ticks collected from hedgehogs underscores the need for understanding of the potential involvement of synanthropic animals as reservoirs for tick-borne and other pathogens in different parts of Iran and surrounding areas.

Q fever is a reportable, zoonotic infection caused by Coxiella burnetii. It can present as either an acute or chronic infection. Acute Q fever is frequently asymptomatic or presents with nonspecific symptoms, making the diagnosis challenging. In the chronic state it will manifest as localized infection such as endocarditis, which is the most common. South Dakota has the highest incidence of Q fever in the U.S. with 12.4 cases per million people. We present a case of a patient in their 50s with mild hepatitis and persistent fevers and eventually was diagnosed with Q fever. The patient had no known exposures. The Q fever was diagnosed using Karius testing, liver biopsy, and serology. The patient was treated with doxycycline and improved. This case highlights diagnostic challenges and management considerations for South Dakota clinicians.

Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii), a Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacterium, is the etiological agent of Q fever. Timely diagnosis and initiation of appropriate therapy are critical for favorable clinical outcomes, particularly in cases of acute Q fever. This report describes a case of C. burnetii infection in a 35-year-old male electrical grid engineer who presented with a 4-day history of febrile illness, peaking at 40.0 °C. Associated symptoms included night sweats, chills, anorexia, nausea, non-productive cough, and chest tightness. During hospitalization, the patient also developed headache and vomiting. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of peripheral blood identified C. burnetii as the causative pathogen. The patient was treated with oral doxycycline (100 mg twice daily) for 14 days and levofloxacin (500 mg once daily) for 5 days. Following antimicrobial therapy, the patient's symptoms resolved rapidly, with no clinical evidence of relapse or progression to chronic Q fever during follow-up. This report describes a case of Q fever diagnosed by mNGS. The case highlights the diagnostic value of mNGS in patients presenting with febrile illness of unknown origin. It also serves as a reminder to clinicians that, even in regions where Q fever is enzootic in animals but no human cases have been reported, the possibility of human infection should not be overlooked.

The Government of Japan has conducted weekly national surveillance of notifiable infectious diseases for over 25 years. As of December 2025, 87 notifiable diseases are under surveillance, although the list has changed over time as new infections have emerged and others have been reclassified. Although weekly data are openly available, their formatting and preparation have been labour-intensive. An open-source R package, jpinfect, has the potential to improve data accessibility and analytical workflows for these data sets. In this study, we used the jpinfect package to summarize national surveillance data for 12 acari-borne diseases in Japan from week 14 of 1999 to week 52 of 2025, by prefecture and sex. In total, 18 295 acari-borne disease cases were reported nationwide. Eight diseases reported at least one case. Of these, scrub typhus (56.6%), Japanese spotted fever (32.9%) and severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (6.7%) together accounted for more than 95% of all cases. Scrub typhus case numbers remained stable and widely distributed across the country, except for in the northern island of Hokkaido. Confirmed cases of the other two tick-born diseases increased, notably in western Japan, but with new cases also reported in northern Japan. Lyme disease, relapsing fever and Q fever were sporadically reported at very low incidence levels (< 0.2 per 100 000 population). In addition to providing an updated epidemiological overview of acari-borne diseases in Japan, this report highlights the potential of jpinfect to streamline the generation of national situation reports. The surveillance and analytical framework described here could serve as a model for other countries in the Western Pacific Region.

Equids, primarily horses, are mostly used for recreational purposes, although in some rural areas they also serve as working animals, maintaining close and frequent contact with humans. Their risk of exposure to vector-borne and zoonotic pathogens can be affected by host-related factors, management practices and environmental conditions. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence and associated risk factors for infections by Babesia caballi, Toxoplasma gondii, Coxiella burnetii, and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in equids from Southwestern Greece. A total of 159 equids were tested using commercial serological assays. Weighted prevalence estimates were applied to account for unequal sampling. Associations were assessed using chi-square tests and logistic regression. Ecological niche modelling was employed to evaluate geographic patterns and environmental correlates. Seroprevalence was highest for B. caballi (8.81%), followed by T. gondii (7.55%) and C. burnetii (1.26%). No seropositive animals were detected for B. burgdorferi sensu lato. Ecological niche modelling showed acceptable predictive performance for B. caballi, with BIO14 and BIO6 emerging as the main environmental predictors. In contrast, the T. gondii model exhibited unacceptable predictive performance, and its environmental associations should therefore be interpreted cautiously. Complementary Random Forest analyses yielded comparable environmental rankings but showed higher classification performance for T. gondii than for B. caballi. Overall, the findings contribute to understanding pathogen exposure patterns in equids and underscore the importance of integrating epidemiological and environmental data in surveillance efforts.

Q fever, caused by Coxiella burnetii, remains an important zoonotic disease with significant implications for animal health, livestock production, and public health. Epidemiological data regarding the circulation of C. burnetii in Romania remain limited, particularly in the western region of the country. This study aimed to assess the observed seropositivity and geographic distribution of anti-C. burnetii antibodies among sampled small ruminants from Western Romania. A cross-sectional sero-epidemiological survey was conducted using 546 serum samples collected from sheep (n = 451) and goats (n = 95) originating from five counties (Timiș, Arad, Bihor, Caraș-Severin, and Hunedoara). Sera were tested for IgG antibodies against C. burnetii using a commercial indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Overall, 87 animals were seropositive, corresponding to an observed seropositivity of 15.9% (87/546). Species-specific seropositivity was significantly higher in goats (25.3%) than in sheep (14.0%) (p = 0.006). Seropositive animals were detected in all surveyed counties, with prevalence ranging from 5.1% in Arad County to 21.3% in Timiș County. Significant geographic variation in seroprevalence was also observed among the investigated counties (p = 0.040). These findings indicate widespread serological evidence of exposure to Coxiella burnetii among the sampled small-ruminant population in Western Romania and reveal heterogeneous exposure patterns associated with both host species and geographic location. Continued surveillance integrating serological and molecular approaches is warranted to better characterize the epidemiology and transmission dynamics of C. burnetii within a One Health framework.

Q fever, caused by Coxiella burnetii, is an underdiagnosed zoonosis in Brazil due to its non-specific clinical presentation and limited diagnostic capacity. This study investigated the molecular detection of C. burnetii in serum samples from patients with acute febrile illness initially suspected of dengue in 34 municipalities of São Paulo State, Brazil. A total of 300 serum samples collected over a three-year period from patients with suspected dengue fever were analyzed. Only samples obtained from patients presenting with up to seven days of febrile illness were included. All samples tested negative for dengue, leptospirosis, and brucellosis and were analyzed by real-time PCR targeting the IS1111 gene. C. burnetii DNA was detected in 1.3% (4/300) of the samples (95%CI: 0.37%-3.35%), compatible with recent infection during the early symptomatic phase. This study represents the second report of molecular detection of C. burnetii in patients with acute febrile syndrome in Brazil and the first one in São Paulo State. Previous serological studies indicate widespread exposure to the pathogen, highlighting the complementary roles of molecular and serological approaches. These findings support the inclusion of Q fever in the differential diagnosis of undifferentiated febrile illnesses and suggest that One Health-oriented surveillance strategies may help reduce underdiagnosis in Brazil, although further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm this recommendation.

C. burnetii is a Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacterium and the causative agent of Q fever. The disease is either asymptomatic or manifests as a mild flu-like illness, but pneumonia or hepatitis might also occur. In most cases, the infection is self-limiting and the pathogen is cleared. In a small percentage of patients, the host immune system fails to eliminate the pathogen, potentially allowing the development of chronic Q fever months or even years after primary infection. The elimination of the bacteria, and thereby prevention of disease onset, would require an inflammatory response. Inflammasomes are multimeric protein complexes that induce a pro-inflammatory response to combat pathogens. Here we show that C. burnetii fails to induce strong activation of the non-canonical inflammasome, independently of its type IVB secretion system. However, the pathogen is unable to prevent external activation of the non-canonical inflammasome, which subsequently results in a reduction of the bacterial burden. Importantly, the acylation pattern of lipid A was identified to be involved in avoiding the activation of the non-canonical inflammasome. C. burnetii harbors a tetra-acylated lipid A. Modification of the C. burnetii lipid A to penta-/hexa-acylation in a small subpopulation resulted in increased secretion of IL1β and reduced bacterial load. Together, these results suggest that the acylation pattern of lipid A constitutes an important immune evasion strategy of C. burnetii by failing to activate the non-canonical inflammasome. In addition, evidence was provided that oxygen limitation arrests activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in murine BMDM, which might prevent efficient elimination of bacteria under hypoxic conditions, such as in granulomas or in inflamed tissue.

Coxiella burnetii is a globally distributed zoonotic bacterium responsible for Q fever in humans, with domestic ruminants serving as primary reservoirs. In Colombia, while livestock production is a vital economic sector, the dynamics of C. burnetii circulation among ticks and domestic animal hosts remain poorly understood. This study aimed to identify C. burnetii in hosts and ticks from two cattle farms in the Magdalena Medio region. Ticks were collected directly from domestic animal hosts through physical inspections and the use of the dragging technique on pasture vegetation and identified via morphological keys and COI barcoding as Rhipicephalus microplus s.l., predominating on cattle, Dermacentor nitens on equines, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus s.l. on dogs. Blood-meal analysis using PCR-HRM and sequencing identified feeding sources in equines, bovines, and humans, with human DNA detected in all larval pools. Following tick characterization, Coxiella spp. were screened by qPCR targeting the IS1111 insertion sequence, revealing a frequency of 10.5% in domestic animal hosts and 1.36% in ticks. Finally, phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA and rpoB genes confirmed the coexistence of C. burnetii (Clade A) in hosts and ticks, alongside Coxiella-like endosymbionts (Clade C), primarily in R. microplus s.l. These findings reveal complex tick-host interactions and confirm the molecular circulation of Coxiella spp. in tropical livestock systems. The results underscore the need to use multigene markers to differentiate pathogens from endosymbionts and suggest a potential human exposure risk, highlighting the importance of One Health surveillance in these agroecosystems.