Small Indian Mongooses () Serve As Reservoirs of and Vectored by .

Small Indian mongooses (SIMs, ) have invasively inhabited over 60 islands worldwide. They have been confirmed as a reservoir of rabies, leptospirosis, and salmonellosis; however, their role in the epidemiology of other zoonoses is little known. On St. Kitts, as well as other islands, SIMs harbor , which can vector several zoonotic diseases. In this study, SIMs were examined for fleas, and the collected fleas analyzed by PCR and DNA sequencing for , , , and . Of the 87 SIMs, 75 (86.2%) harbored . recovered from nine (10.3%), one (1.1%), and one (1.1%) of the SIMs was positive for , , and , respectively. These data indicate that SIMs serve as an additional reservoir of and , which should be taken into consideration in control and prevention of these rapidly emerging zoonoses.