Abstract
Little information is available about Q. fever in Egypt, a zoonotic disease caused by Coxiellaburnetii, transmitted from domestic ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of IgG antibodies against C. burnetii phase II antigen in human serum of two different groups (healthy human population of a rural area and a population of an urban area suffering from respiratory complains), in other words determine the percentage of both symptomatic (urban) and asymptomatic (rural) Q. fever infections and also investigate about different risk factors. A total of 92 human serum samples (42 serum samples from patients with respiratory complains and 50 serum samples randomly collected from people free from respiratory complains) were collected. The detection of antibodies against C. burnetii was carried out by ELISA method. The obtained results in the current study revealed that 66 out of 92 (72%)humanserum samples were found to be ELISA positive for C. burnetii phase II IgG. 31serum samples were found seropositive in patients with respiratory complains with a percentage of (74%) of urban Q. fever, and 35 serum samples were found seropositive in people free from respiratory complains with a percentage of (70%)ofrural Q. fever.Statistical analysis of the available data (symptomatic or asymptomatic, urbanism, sex, age, job, history, and pregnancy) was carried out using Chi-square test that revealed no statistically significant differences and the values were (0.16, 0.175, 1.62, 2.14, 8.53 and 0.88), respectively. These results prove that Q. fever is present in Egypt and is not restricted to a certain risk group. The public health significance of Q. fever was also discussed.

Key words: Serology, IgG, C. Burnetti, Behera Province