Macroecological analysis of Coxiella burnetii occurrence in livestock in the Republic of Korea

There is limited knowledge about the factors that affect the prevalence of Coxiella burnetii in livestock. This study aims to explore the macroecological aspects of C. burnetii occurrence in different livestock species, across 15 different farms throughout the Republic of Korea, from October 2014 to June 2023. A total of 63 out of 540 collected blood samples were PCR positive for C. burnetii DNA. We used a binomial generalized linear mixed model to elucidate patterns of C. burnetii occurrence at the spatial and temporal scales. PCR positivity for C. burnetii was positively associated with PC5, an environmental principal component, which primarily represented the environmental variable “Proportion of forest area within a 50 m radius of farms”. The estimated variance between sampling years was smaller than the variance between the farm sites. This result may be useful in guiding livestock management strategies to reduce C. burnetii occurrence in livestock industry.