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gatewlkr asked in Society & CultureLanguages · 9 years ago

What does Coxiella Burnetii mean in plain English from Latin?

I know what Coxiella Burnetii is (the etiological agent of Q-Fever) but I'm curious as to what the words themselves mean. Can anyone help (I've tried several translators online and had very little success).

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  • Anonymous
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    It looks to me as though the name comes from a couple of scientists -- named Cox and Burnet. It's not uncommon to "Latinize" surnames this way to honor scientists who may have worked on an issue.

    And, in fact, I am correct, as it turns out. You could have discovered this by simply googling. There's a Wiki article:

  • 9 years ago

    As with may scientific names, this one is derived from the name of scientists involved in unravelling the mystery of Q-Fever.

    quote from the Wiki-article listesd as source below:

    The pathogen of Q fever was discovered in 1937, when Frank Macfarlane BURNET and Mavis Freeman isolated the bacterium from one of Derrick’s patients.It was originally identified as a species of Rickettsia. H.R. COX and Gordon Davis isolated it from ticks in Montana, USA in 1938

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