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The tayra Eira barbara is a Neotropical mustelid considered as an endangered species by Mexican environmental authorities. Despite the considerable information available on the biology and ecology of E. barbara, little is known about its helminth fauna. Here, we provided new records of nematodes from a road-killed tayra in Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico. The species identification of nematodes was based on morphological studies and molecular analysis of fragments of the 28S gene. The tayra specimen was infected by three nematodes: Molineus sp., Physalopterinae gen. sp. and Angiostrongylus vasosum. To our knowledge, this study is the first to report the natural infection of E. barbara with Molineus sp. and Physalopterinae gen. sp. Our study provides the first nucleotide sequences of nematodes parasitizing E. barbara providing a starting point against which future studies may be compared.

The aim of this paper was to study the occurrence of helminths in Mus musculus and Rattus rattus from urban, suburban and rural settlements in Yucatán, Mexico; and to analyse the host factors (e.g. sex) related to helminths’ distribution. Helminths in a total of 279 rodents were surveyed by visual examination of the liver for metacestodes and faecal examination for helminth eggs using the formalin-ethyl acetate sedimentation technique. The cestodes Hydatigera taeniaeformis (metacestodes detected in the liver) and Hymenolepis diminuta, and the nematodes Aspiculuris sp., Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, Syphacia muris, Syphacia obvelata, and Trichuris muris were identified. In M. musculus, the prevalence of infection with T. muris and H. taeniaeformis was higher in the rural village compared to those in the suburban neighbourhood. For R. rattus, a higher prevalence of infection with H. diminuta was found in the urban site compared to that in the suburban site. This study reports the occurrence of H. diminuta among rodents living in close proximity to humans, representing a potential public health risk. In addition, this survey increases our understanding of dynamic transmission among intestinal helminths recorded in Yucatán, Mexico.