Parasitic fauna of bats from Costa Rica.

Bats are important reservoirs and spreaders of pathogens, including those of zoonotic concern. Though Costa Rica hosts one of the highest bat species' diversity, no information is available about their parasites. In order to investigate the occurrence of vector-borne pathogens (VBPs) and gastrointestinal (GI) parasites of chiropterans from this neotropical area, ectoparasites ( = 231) and stools ( = 64) were collected from 113 bats sampled in Santa Cruz (site 1) and Talamanca (site 2). Mites, fleas and ticks were morphologically and molecularly identified, as well as pathogens transmitted by vectors (VBPs, i.e., spp., spp., spp.) and from feces, such as spp., spp. and spp. were molecularly investigated. Overall, 21 bat species belonging to 15 genera and 5 families were identified of which 42.5% were infested by ectoparasites, with a higher percentage of mites (38.9%, i.e., sp. and sp.) followed by flies (2.6%, i.e., sp.) and tick larvae (1.7%, i.e., sp.). spp. was identified in one immature tick and phylogenetically clustered with two species of the Spotted Fever Group (i.e., . and . ). The frequency of GI parasite infection was 14%, being 3.1% of bats infected by spp. (un-identified non- species), 1.5% by spp. and 9.4% by spp. (bat and rodent genotypes; one -related human genotype). The wide range of ectoparasites collected coupled with the detection of sp., and in bats from Costa Rica highlight the role these mammals may play as spreaders of pathogens and the need to further investigate the pathogenic potential of these parasites.