Parasite Fauna and Coinfections in Urban Rats Naturally Infected by the Zoonotic Parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis Galán Puchades, María Teresa Gosálvez, Carla Trelis, María Gómez Samblás, María Mercedes Solano Parada, Jennifer Osuna Carrillo De Albornoz, Antonio Sáez Durán, Sandra Bueno Marí, Rubén Fuentes, Marius V. Angiostrongylus cantonensis Rattus norvegicus Rattus rattus When the zoonotic parasite of rodents that can cause human neuroangiostrongyliasis, i.e., Angiostrongylus cantonensis, is found in its natural definitive hosts, it is usually reported in isolation, as if the rat lungworm were the only component of its parasite community. In this study, we report the coinfections found in rats naturally infected by A. cantonensis in urban populations of Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus in Valencia, Spain. In addition to the rat lungworms, which were found in 14 of the 125 rats studied (a prevalence of 11.20%), 18 other parasite species (intestinal and tissular protists, microsporidia and helminths) were found, some of them with high burdens. Fourteen of these nineteen species found are potential zoonotic parasites, namely Blastocystis, Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp., Enterocytozoon bieneusi, Encephalitozoon hellem, Toxoplasma gondii, Brachylaima spp., Hydatigera taeniaeformis s.l. larvae, Hymenolepis nana, Hymenolepis diminuta, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, Calodium hepaticum, Gongylonema neoplasticum andMoniliformis moniliformis. The total predominance of coinfected rats as well as their high parasite loads seem to indicate a trend towards parasite tolerance. 2024-04-29T08:42:31Z 2024-04-29T08:42:31Z 2023-12-27 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Galán-Puchades, M.T.; Gosálvez, C.; Trelis, M.; Gómez-Samblás, M.; Solano-Parada, J.; Osuna, A.; Sáez-Durán, S.; Bueno-Marí, R.; Fuentes, M.V. Parasite Fauna and Coinfections in Urban Rats Naturally Infected by the Zoonotic Parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis. Pathogens 2024, 13, 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens13010028 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/91243 10.3390/pathogens13010028 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI