Q fever is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, a Gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacterium [1][2][4]. The organism was first described in Australia in 1937 and infects a broad host range spanning arthropods, birds, and mammals including livestock, companion animals, and humans [2][5]. It exhibits a distinctive antigenic phase variation resulting from changes in membrane lipopolysaccharide complexity [4].
Disease overview
BacterialQ fever
Q热
Evidence-backed informationEN 5/7 applicable sections · ZH 5/7 applicable sectionsUpdated Sep 3, 2026
Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis caused by the intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii, with domesticated ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and goats serving as the principal reservoirs [1][2][3]. Human infection most often follows inhalation of contaminated aerosols originating from infected livestock or their birth products, and outbreaks are commonly linked to occupational exposure [1][2][4]. Although many infections are asymptomatic or self-limited, a small proportion of patients develop chronic disease that can be life-threatening, underscoring the importance of targeted prevention in high-risk groups [1][2][4].
Read the full clinical and epidemiological profile6
Acute C. burnetii infection is frequently asymptomatic, but when symptomatic it typically manifests as a febrile flu-like illness or pneumonia [1][2][4]. A persistent focalized infection develops in approximately 4–5% of patients, can be life-threatening, and most often presents as endocarditis [1][2][4]. The clinical picture depends on both the virulence of the infecting strain and host-specific risk factors [2].
Q fever has a worldwide distribution, with the notable exception of New Zealand, and exerts a considerable economic impact on the livestock industry [1][2][5]. Epidemiological features vary by geography, ranging from endemic or hyperendemic transmission to large epidemic outbreaks, and the disease is rarely reported despite its ubiquitous nature [2][5]. Outbreaks have been linked to settings involving livestock exposure, including metropolitan clusters associated with cats and incidents involving pregnant sheep in medical research environments [3]. The disease predominantly affects people in rural areas who are in contact with animals [4].
Humans most commonly acquire Q fever through inhalation of aerosols contaminated with C. burnetii, particularly those derived from placental products and other birth-related materials of infected animals [1][3][4]. Domesticated ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and goats are the main reservoirs, while wild animals, domestic animals, and ticks also contribute to the natural cycle [1][4]. Companion animals such as cats have been implicated as carriers transmitting infection to humans in metropolitan outbreaks [3].
Prevention and control efforts are primarily directed at occupationally exposed groups—including shepherds, veterinarians, animal handlers, abattoir and dairy workers, and laboratory personnel—and at minimizing exposure among people handling animals or birth products [1][4]. Vaccination is regarded as the most effective form of prophylaxis for these high-risk individuals, with consideration also given to persons at higher risk of chronic Q fever such as those with cardiac valve defects, vascular aneurysms, or immunocompromise [1]. Recent vaccines have shown encouraging success in preventing disease among individuals at high risk of exposure [3].
- 1Škultéty L et al. Q fever and prevention. Epidemiol Mikrobiol Imunol. 2020 Spring. PMID: 32819108.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32819108/
- 2Eldin C et al. From Q Fever to Coxiella burnetii Infection: a Paradigm Change. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2017 Jan. PMID: 27856520. doi: 10.1128/CMR.00045-16.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27856520/
- 3Reimer LG et al. Q fever. Clin Microbiol Rev. 1993 Jul. PMID: 8358703. doi: 10.1128/CMR.6.3.193.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8358703/
- 4España PP et al. Q Fever (Coxiella Burnetii). Semin Respir Crit Care Med. 2020 Aug. PMID: 32629489. doi: 10.1055/s-0040-1710594.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32629489/
- 5Cutler SJ et al. Q fever. J Infect. 2007 Apr. PMID: 17147957. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2006.10.048.PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17147957/
Coverage
Reporting countries and regions
AustraliaAU
BelgiumBE
BulgariaBG
CroatiaHR
CyprusCY
CzechiaCZ
DenmarkDK
EstoniaEE
FinlandFI
FranceFR
GermanyDE
GreeceGR
Hong Kong, ChinaHK
HungaryHU
IcelandIS
IrelandIE
ItalyIT
JapanJP
LatviaLV
LiechtensteinLI
LithuaniaLT
LuxembourgLU
MaltaMT
NetherlandsNL
New ZealandNZ
NorwayNO
PolandPL
PortugalPT
RomaniaRO
SlovakiaSK
SloveniaSI
South KoreaKR
SpainES
SwedenSE
SwitzerlandCH
Taiwan, ChinaTW
United KingdomGB
United StatesUS
Trends by reporting country
Monthly patterns over time
Research Radar
Recent related research
Seroprevalence and Presumed Bovine Leukaemia Virus and Coxiella burnetii Coinfections in Three Dairy Cattle Herds From the Al Ain Region, United Arab Emirates.
Veterinary medicine and science
Retrospective Analysis of Chronic Q Fever Cases at a Tertiary Care Center from 2007 to 2023
Open Forum Infectious Diseases
Q fever endocarditis of the tricuspid valve transmitted in an urban setting with no livestock exposure: Case report
BMC Infectious Diseases
Humoral and cellular immune responses in sheep following administration of different doses of an inactivated phase I vaccine against Coxiella burnetii
Vaccine
Dot map cartograms for detection of infectious disease outbreaks: an application to Q fever, the Netherlands and pertussis, Germany
Eurosurveillance
Showing 5 of 9 related publications.
Literature links are provided for discovery and do not alter or validate the surveillance series above.
Data access
Page dataset index with source links and update metadata.
Official sourcesAuthority, cadence, notes52
Australia NINDSS
Australia
Australian national notifiable diseases surveillance dashboard.
Australia NINDSS — Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Australian Capital Territory, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — New South Wales
New South Wales, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for New South Wales, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Northern Territory
Northern Territory, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Northern Territory, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Queensland
Queensland, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Queensland, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — South Australia
South Australia, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for South Australia, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Tasmania
Tasmania, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Tasmania, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Victoria
Victoria, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Victoria, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
Australia NINDSS — Western Australia
Western Australia, Australia
Australian NINDSS monthly state/territory notifications for Western Australia, kept separate from the Australia national aggregate.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Belgium Annual Baseline
Belgium
Belgium annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Bulgaria Annual Baseline
Bulgaria
Bulgaria annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Public Health Ontario IDTO Monthly
Ontario, Canada
Ontario-level current-year preliminary monthly case counts from Public Health Ontario's IDTO report.
Switzerland FOPH IDD
Switzerland
Switzerland FOPH/BAG IDD mandatory reporting API normalized to national case rows. Monthly series may use the dashboard CHFL aggregate where CH-only monthly series are not exposed.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Cyprus Annual Baseline
Cyprus
Cyprus annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Czechia Annual Baseline
Czechia
Czechia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Germany RKI SurvStat 2.0
Germany
RKI SurvStat national weekly notification export; raw ZIP exports are retained and recent weeks are overwritten for revisions.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Denmark Annual Baseline
Denmark
Denmark annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Estonia Annual Baseline
Estonia
Estonia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Spain Annual Baseline
Spain
Spain annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Finland THL Infectious Diseases Register
Finland
Finland THL Infectious Diseases Register national monthly case counts. The current month is ingested as provisional and the latest three months are refreshed for source revisions.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — France Annual Baseline
France
France annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — United Kingdom Annual Baseline
United Kingdom
United Kingdom annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Greece Annual Baseline
Greece
Greece annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Hong Kong, China CHP Notifiable Diseases
Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong, China CHP annual notifiable infectious disease CSVs normalized to national monthly totals
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Croatia Annual Baseline
Croatia
Croatia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Hungary Annual Baseline
Hungary
Hungary annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Ireland HPSC Notifiable Diseases Hub
Ireland
Ireland HPSC national weekly notifiable-disease totals from the official ArcGIS FeatureServer. Internal ingestion is enabled; public release remains disabled pending written redistribution permission.
Iceland Directorate of Health Annual Dashboard
Iceland
National annual case notifications by disease. Published values can be revised retrospectively and remain annual period totals.
Iceland Directorate of Health STI Dashboard
Iceland
Monthly STI diagnosis facts from laboratory and registry surveillance; the official dashboard is published on a quarterly schedule.
Iceland Directorate of Health Respiratory Dashboard
Iceland
ISO-week respiratory diagnosis counts. Hospitalizations, samples, and vaccination indicators are separate measures and are not counted as diagnoses.
Iceland Directorate of Health Historical Registry
Iceland
Historical official registry tables for 1997–2021, with annual totals and disease-specific monthly notification facts retained at source grain.
Iceland Directorate of Health Legacy ICD Monthly
Iceland
Historical Saga EHR ICD encounter counts for 1997–2020. This clinical measure is non-comparable with registry notifications and is kept separate.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Italy Annual Baseline
Italy
Italy annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
JP NIID Weekly
Japan
Japan weekly infectious disease surveillance via NIID/JIHS.
Korea KDCA EID
South Korea
Korea KDCA notifiable infectious disease OpenAPI or portal/KOSIS downloads aggregated to national monthly notification counts.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Liechtenstein Annual Baseline
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Lithuania Annual Baseline
Lithuania
Lithuania annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Luxembourg Annual Baseline
Luxembourg
Luxembourg annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Latvia Annual Baseline
Latvia
Latvia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Malta Annual Baseline
Malta
Malta annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Netherlands Annual Baseline
Netherlands
Netherlands annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Norway FHI MSIS Statistics Bank
Norway
Norway FHI MSIS national monthly notifications from the official Allvis frontend API; adapter contract checks guard the unversioned endpoint.
New Zealand PHF Science Monthly Notifiable Diseases
New Zealand
PHF Science (formerly ESR) monthly notifiable disease surveillance data via internal globalID2 crawler
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Poland Annual Baseline
Poland
Poland annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Portugal Annual Baseline
Portugal
Portugal annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Romania Annual Baseline
Romania
Romania annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Sweden Public Health Agency SmiNet
Sweden
Sweden SmiNet national monthly reported cases from the official Public Health Agency statistics pages; public release is enabled with closed-month publication and revisable recent-month refreshes.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Slovenia Annual Baseline
Slovenia
Slovenia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
ECDC Surveillance Atlas — Slovakia Annual Baseline
Slovakia
Slovakia annual Member-State reported case counts from the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. Missing topic/year cells remain unknown and published zeroes are preserved. Data provided by ECDC based on data reported by EU/EEA Member States.
Taiwan, China CDC NIDSS
Taiwan, China
Taiwan, China monthly notifiable infectious disease open-data CSV feed.
US CDC NNDSS
United States
CDC National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System provisional data.
US CDC NHSS HIV
United States
CDC NNDSS weekly data plus NHSS annual national HIV diagnoses