Keita A. K. auteur aut IRD Mediannikov Oleg auteur aut IRD Ratmanov Pavel auteur aut IRD Diatta G. auteur aut IRD Bassene H. auteur aut IRD Roucher Clémentine auteur aut IRD Tall A. auteur aut IRD Sokhna Cheikh auteur aut IRD Trape Jean-François auteur aut IRD Raoult D. auteur aut IRD Fenollar F. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Tropheryma whipplei, the bacterium linked to Whipple's disease, is involved in acute infections and asymptomatic carriage. In rural Senegal, the prevalence of T. whipplei is generally high but is not homogeneous throughout households in the same village. We studied environmental samples collected in two Senegalese villages and conducted the survey to investigate the difference between households. Overall, the comparison between five households with very high T. whipplei prevalence and three households without any registered cases showed that the only difference was the presence of toilets in the latter (1/5 versus 3/3; P = 0.01423). Among the 1,002 environmental specimens (including domestic and synanthropic animals and dust sampled in households) tested for T. whipplei DNA, only four specimens were slightly positive. Humans are currently the predominant identified reservoir and source of T. whipplei in these populations. Limited access to toilets and exposure to human feces facilitate the fecal-oral transmission of T. whipplei. specialized SENEGAL 056 88 2 339-343 2013 0002-9637 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010058987 10.4269/ajtmh.2012.12-0614 0002-9637 [F B010058987] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010058987 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers17-02/010058987.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2013-04-02 2025-05-20 fdi:010058987 fre