Sample collection
A total of 352 faecal samples from 12 free-living carnivore species belonging to the Canidae (n = 193), Felidae (n = 15), Herpestidae (n = 1), Mustelidae (n = 131), Procyonidae (n = 1), and Viverridae (n = 11) families were collected in seven Spanish regions between December 2013 to October 2017 (Table 2, Figure 1). The sampling was mainly focused on areas with higher densities of extensively reared cattle and where positive cases of bovine besnoitiosis had been previously reported (Nieto-Rodríguez et al., 2016), as is the case of Central and Western Spain (Figure 1). Samples were obtained from road- and hunter-killed animals, from accidentally found carcasses, camera-trap surveys, or animals entering rescue shelters (see Calero-Bernal et al., 2020). Faeces were collected directly from the rectum of each animal and placed in individual plastic cups with records of the date, location and species, and kept frozen before 12 h after collection.