Table 1.
Data extracted from the selected publications and used to address the review questions
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Year | Year of publication |
| Reference | Authors. Year. Title. Journal. Volume. Issue. Pages |
| Research area | Journal scope |
| Scale of the study | Spatial scale: a city block, one city, multiple cities, a country |
| Location | Location(s) of the study |
| Trapping site(s) | Description of the trapping site(s) |
| Method of capture | Type(s) of trap |
| Host species | Rattus species investigated: R. rattus and/or R. norvegicus |
| Aim of the study | Main objective(s) of the research |
| Global relevance | Main scientific field covered by the study |
| Method(s) used for detection | Method(s) used to retrieve the helminths or evaluate intensity of infection |
| Morphological identification keys | Reference paper(s) cited for the identification of the helminth species |
| Sample size | Number of rats investigated |
| Helminth species | Latin binomial as quoted in the article |
| Organ | Organ where the helminth species was retrieved |
| Number of positive | Number of positive rats for each helminth species |
| Prevalence | Prevalence of infection for each helminth species (number of positive / sample size) |
| Helminth species richness | Number of helminth species per host (co-infection) |
| Parasite burden | Defined using different metrics: mean intensity (total number of helminths of a particular species found in a sample divided by the number of hosts infected with that helminth); abundance (number of individuals of a particular helminth species in a single host); mean abundance (total number of individuals of a particular helminth species in a sample of a particular host species divided by the total number of hosts of that species examined (including both infected and uninfected hosts), i.e. the average abundance of a helminth species among all members of a particular host population) (Bush et al. 1997) |
| Pathological findings | Gross and histological changes induced by the presence of an helminth species |
| Interspecies interaction | When the occurrence of one helminth species has an impact on the presence of another species |
| Risk factor(s) of infection | Risk factor(s) of infection statistically identified |