Table 2.

Summary of field sampling

	Host characteristics			Total rodents	Infection status				Samples for DNA extraction
Dataset	Age	Sex	Reproductive status		S intensity (prevalence)	H intensity (prevalence)	M Prevalence	aB Prevalence	Blood samples	Flea samples	Tick samples
Cross-sectional	Juveniles	Male	NR	64	8 (98)	6 (50)	36	95	41	14	5
		Female	NR	67	7 (100)	9 (57)	24	100	37	16	10
	Adults	Male	NR	84	13(97)	8 (42)	77	97	40	16	7
		Female	NR	59	16(100)	7 (54)	65	92	37	16	11
		Female	R	65	11 (97)	9 (17)	95	87	40	0	4
Longitudinal	Juveniles	Male	NR	9	15(100)	5(55)	57	86	14	30	2
		Female	NR	13	10(100)	6(58)	33	88	18	32	3
	Adults	Male	NR	28	15(100)	7(45)	87	75	16	32	5
		Female	NR	19	15(100)	5(50)	44	78	18	32	3
			R	9	15(100)	7(28)	87	62	16	0	0
	Total			417 b	125 (99)	69 e (46)	61	86	277 c	188 d	50 c

Details on the trapped G. andersoni rodents, on the prevalence (percentage of infected/infested hosts) and intensity (mean abundance of ectoparasites per infested host) of their Mycoplasma (M), Bartonella (B), S. cleopatrae (S), and H. impeltatum (H) parasites, and on the samples included in the cross-sectional and the longitudinal datasets

^a99% of the hosts were infected by Bartonella; thus we exploited the variability in the intensities of positive PCR bands to distinguish between samples with low (<500 copies per 1 μl of DNA) and high (>500 copies per 1 μl of DNA) Bartonella sp. cell density. This distinction served for the prevalence calculation that in the case of Bartonella, corresponded to the percentage of highly infected hosts

^bWe had in total 339 G. andersoni captured in the first period, but 78 of them are relevant to both datasets

^cWe had in total only 236 blood samples, but 41 of them are relevant to both datasets

^dWe had in total 126 flea samples, but 62 of them are relevant to both datasets

^eWe had in total 42 tick samples, but 8 of them are relevant to both datasets