Knowledge and attitudes towards Q fever disease and vaccination: a national survey of Australia’s veterinary workforce

Background: Despite availability of a vaccine (Q-Vax® bioCSL Ltd., Vic.) Q fever was the second most common zoonosis reported by Australian veterinarians in 2013 (Dowd et al. 2013) raising questions about Q fever vaccine uptake among at-risk groups, including the veterinary workforce. Purpose: to determine and compare the Q fever vaccine uptake, knowledge and attitudes of veterinarians and veterinary nurses in Australia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was implemented online via Survey Monkey® in 2014. Data were analysed using SAS® (2002-2012 SAS Institute Inc., Cary). Odds ratios for comparison of veterinarians and veterinary nurses were generated though binary, ordinal or multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex and state. P-values <0.05 were considered significant. Results: Responses from 890 veterinarians and 852 veterinary nurses revealed a greater proportion of veterinarians were vaccinated (61%) compared to veterinary nurses (23%). Veterinarians were mostly vaccinated during their university course (81%) while nurses were mostly vaccinated as a job requirement (43%). Among both cohorts the most influential reason for non-vaccination was a perception that “I will not be seriously affected by Q fever” and the most influential sources of biosecurity information were clinic protocols and workplace veterinarians. Compared to veterinary nurses, veterinarians reported higher levels of Q fever knowledge, had 2 times odds (95% CI 1.4-3.4; p = 0.003) of being convinced the Q fever vaccine is important, 3 times odds (2.2-5.1; p<0.001) of agreeing the vaccine is effective and 1.5 times odds (1.05-2.13; p = 0.27) of agreeing the vaccine is safe. Conclusions: Australia’s veterinary nurses rely on workplace protocols and veterinarians, who report high levels of confidence in the Q fever vaccine, for biosecurity information. Vaccine uptake among these nurses falls dramatically short of veterinarians, with many believing they won’t be seriously affected by Q fever. Relevance: Results may reflect a failure to convey health and safety information to veterinary nurses or a misunderstanding of the relevance of Q fever across all veterinary clinics, regardless of species