ROUTE OF INFECTION DETERMINES THE CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF ACUTE Q-FEVER

In Nova Scotia the main manifestation of acute Q fever is pneumonia, w hile in France it is granulomatous hepatitis. To test the hypothesis t hat the route of infection is the major determinant of the manifestati ons of acute Q fever, 10 groups of 10- to 12-g female BALB/c mice (4 a nimals/group) were used, Five groups were inoculated intraperitoneally tip) and 5 intranasally (inl) with Coxiella burnetii. Both routes of infection resulted in pneumonia. However, the inl route resulted in gr eater airway changes (on a numeric scale with 0 being no changes): 2.0 5 +/- 2.20 versus 0.60 +/- 0.83 (P < .002), The ip route resulted only in hepatosplenomegaly. It was concluded that the route of infection i s one determinant of the manifestations of acute Q fever.