The most revealing result from this analysis was that direct contact with animals was not a significant risk factor for infection. Nor was drinking raw milk. Some of the cases—but only a minority, less than 40 percent—involved contact with agricultural products such as hay, straw, and manure. From these data, the team narrowed it down to “windborne transmission” as the most likely source of Q fever in the area. The high incidence of infection among goats, the cascade of abortions, the practice of fertilizing fields with manure from the kidding sheds, the nature of the bacterium itself (more on
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