This work was supported by the US DoD Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division and its Global Emerging Infections Surveillance branch (AFHSD/GEIS), PROMIS ID P0143_19_N6_03, 2019-2020. AGL is supported by training grant D43 TW007393 awarded by the Fogarty International Center of the US National Institutes of Health. JGP was supported by FONDECYT-CONCYTEC (grant contract number 100-2016FONDECYT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Rickettsiae are a family of ectoparasite-borne bacteria that can produce high morbidity and mortality among humans. There are scarce data on rickettsial ecology in rural areas of the Peruvian Amazon basin, where seroprevalence has not been determined, and the identities of animals acting as reservoirs of these bacteria are not known. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Zungarococha (between 2019 and 2021), a rural community located approximately 20 km away from Iquitos city. Blood samples were collected from humans (175), dogs (123), and cats (12). Blood samples and tissues were collected from black rats (84). Finally, we collected fleas from dogs and cats (222), ticks from dogs (91), and mites from black rats (32). Blood samples from humans, dogs, cats, and black rats were analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence assays (IFA) to detect IgG antibodies against rickettsias. We screened ...