Q is for Coxiella Burnetii

What am I looking at?

This is a colored scanning electron microscopy image of Coxiella burnetii bacteria inside a host cell. The bacteria are yellow (1) and the host cell is red (2).

Biology in the background

Coxiella burnetii  bacteria live naturally in larger mammals common on farms, such as cows, sheep, and goats. Often, the bacteria don’t cause any illness in the host animal, though infections are linked with higher levels of miscarriage and stillbirth in farm animals. These bacteria are especially concentrated in the placenta and amniotic fluid of their hosts and are also excreted in their milk, urine, and feces. Once excreted, they are very resilient and can survive much longer than many other host-based, or zoonotic, bacteria.

Q fever is rare but not unknown in humans infected with these bacteria. Generally, infected humans come in contact with Coxiella burnetii  by breathing in dust from barns or fields that are home to infected animals. Q fever is rarely fatal in humans; its symptoms include high fever, headache, fatigue, muscle pain, confusion, sore throat, dry cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and chest pain.

These bacteria can vary in size but are usually about 1 micrometer long, or roughly 75 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Technique

This image was created using scanning electron microscopy.