Parasites and Parasitic Diseases in Small Animals

Humans co-exist with animals that are part of our ecosystem, although they are not always noticeable due to their small size. In addition to the animals naturally present in the environment, a great number of small mammals are commonly kept as pets, such as dogs, cats, rodents, hedgehogs, and rabbits, not to mention other exotic animals such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. This close relationship explains why some parasitic diseases are also zoonotic, infecting humans and even causing serious illness. Zoonoses can also lead to significant economic losses due to decreased productivity and increased healthcare costs. Although recent years have seen progress in this field, many aspects remain unknown. The success of the One Health concept now requires breaking down the interdisciplinary barriers that still separate human and veterinary medicine from ecological, evolutionary, and environmental sciences. For these reasons, it is fundamental to study and control parasitic diseases in small animals to improve global public health. Consequently, the open access journal Animals (EISSN 2076-2615) ran a Special Issue entitled “Parasites and Parasitic Diseases in Small Animals” with Angela M Garcia-Sanchez and Rocío Callejón as Guest Editors. This Special Issue contains original papers related to this broad topic that embraces a wide variety of animal hosts and parasites, such as arthropods, protozoans, and helminths, as well as research areas like epidemiology, pathogenesis, treatment resistance, control measures, vaccination, and immunology.