ORIGINAL PAPER Whipworm diversity in West African rodents: a molecular approach and the description of Trichuris duplantieri n. sp. (Nematoda: Trichuridae) Alexis Ribas 1,2 & Christophe Diagne 1,3 & Caroline Tatard 4 & Mamoudou Diallo 3 & Srisupaph Poonlaphdecha 5 & Carine Brouat 1 Received: 18 November 2016 /Accepted: 3 February 2017 /Published online: 16 February 2017 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract Whipworms were collected from rodents (Muridae) from six West African countries: Burkina-Faso, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, and the Republics of Benin, Guinea, Mali and Senegal. Molecular sequences (ITS-1, 5.8S and ITS-2 of the ribosomal DNA gene) and mor- phometric characters were analysed in Trichuris (Nematoda: Trichuridae) specimens found in seven host species: Arvicanthis niloticus, Gerbilliscus gambianus, Gerbillus gerbillus, G. tarabuli, Mastomys erythroleucus, M. huberti and M. natalensis. Phylogenetic analyses revealed three clades, one recognised as Trichuris mastomysi, previously re- corded in M. natalensis from Tanzania, and the other two previously undescribed. A new species named Trichuris duplantieri n. sp., found in Gerbillus spp. from Mauritania, was characterised using molecular and morphometric methods. Keywords Trichuris spp. . Rodents . West Africa . Phylogeny Introduction The whipworms of the genus Trichuris Roederer, 1761 are widely distributed in mammals. Although some species have been well studied (e.g. Trichuris vulpis (Dunn et al. 2002), T. trichiura (Stephenson et al. 2000) and T. suis (Li et al. 2012), known to parasitize dogs and other canids, humans and swine, respectively), further research is still needed to im- prove knowledge of the diversity present in this genus. The usefulness of the morphometric characterisation of whipworms to species level (Špakulová 1994; Feliu et al. 2000; Nissen et al. 2012; Ribas et al. 2013) is limited and has serious constraints. The existence of overlaps in the morphometric characteristics traditionally used for species determination has recently prompted the use of molecular techniques to separate taxa, a first step towards dealing ultimately with other parasitological issues such as biogeography, host specificity and ecology (see Callejón et al. 2012; Robles et al. 2014). Rodents represent about 40% of all mammal species (Musser and Carleton 2005) and are thus interesting targets for studying diversity in whipworms. Despite the great diversity of rodents in Africa (about 400 species; Happold 2013), knowledge of their helminths is still fairly limited. A review of the available literature by Ribas et al. (2013) reported and described eight species of Trichuris. However, all descriptions—from that of T. carlieri in 1916 to T. mastomysi in 1960—were written prior to the devel- opment of molecular techniques and are very specific (mainly related to one host species in a given geographical area), that is they lack any medium- or large-scale review aimed at characterising with greater precision the distribution of Trichuris sp. across host species and geographical areas. Moreover, it is likely that many authors have attributed by default the species found in African rodents to T. muris, which was once the commonly used name for all Trichuridae found in Murinae (Ribas et al. 2013). The report of an innominate species of the * Alexis Ribas alexisribas@hotmail.com 1 Ird, CBGP (UMR INRA / IRD / Cirad / Montpellier SupAgro), Campus International de Baillarguet, Montferrier sur Lez, France 2 Section of Parasitology, Department of Biology, Healthcare and the Environment, Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, University of Barcelona, Av. Joan XXIII, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain 3 Ird, CBGP (UMR INRA / IRD / Cirad / Montpellier SupAgro), Campus ISRA/IRD de Bel Air, Dakar, Senegal 4 Inra, CBGP (UMR INRA / IRD / Cirad / Montpellier SupAgro), Campus International de Baillarguet, Montferrier sur Lez, France 5 Biodiversity Research Group, Faculty of Science, Udon Thani Rajabhat University, Udon Thani 41000, Thailand Parasitol Res (2017) 116:1265–1271 DOI 10.1007/s00436-017-5404-3