Q fever and tick-borne borreliosis are two zoonotic diseases rarely diagnosed in Senegalese health facilities, particularly in rural areas. Our study aims to better understand the circulation of Coxiella burnetii and Borrelia spp. DNA on human skin and the domestic environment in rural areas. Cutaneous swabs were taken from febrile patients being treated for borreliosis and/or Q fever, the members of patients' households and control households in the Niakhar area. Dust samples were also collected from 90 households where 54 cases of borreliosis and Q fever were reported as well as from the households of members of control populations in Dielmo, Ndiop, and Niakhar. C. burnetii and Borrelia spp. DNA were detected by quantitative PCR in cutaneous swabs and dust samples targeting spacers IS1111_IS30A and Bor 16S gene. Of 1365 persons tested, 76 were shown to carry C. burnetii, 13 Borrelia spp., and 6 were identified as carrying both C. burnetii and Borrelia spp. The prevalence of Borrelia spp. DNA in households was 16.7% in Dielmo, 6.7% in Ndiop, and 23.3% in all other villages in the Niakhar area, and the presence of C. burnetii in the same localities was 10%, 13.3% and 66.7%, respectively. Furthermore, C. burnetii genotyping identified the presence of Multispacer Sequence Typing group 6. These results revealed for the first time the carriage on the skin of C. burnetii and Borrelia spp. DNA in humans and its wide distribution across households. Our findings suggest that many populations are exposed to these diseases, with frequent contaminating cases of infectious origin arising from the domestic environment.
Keywords: Bacterial DNA; Borrelia spp; Coxiella burnetii; Cutaneous samples; Domestic environment; Households dust.