Parasites and microorganisms associated with the snakes collected for the "festa Dei serpari" in Cocullo, Italy.

• Main Authors: Jairo Alfonso Mendoza-Roldan (Author), Livia Perles (Author), Ernesto Filippi (Author), Nicole Szafranski (Author), Gianpaolo Montinaro (Author), Mariaelisa Carbonara (Author), Riccardo Scalera (Author), Pedro Paulo de Abreu Teles (Author), Julia Walochnik (Author), Domenico Otranto (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2024-02-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

While in much of the Western world snakes are feared, in the small, rural, mountainous town of Cocullo, in the middle of central Italy, snakes are annually collected and celebrated in a sacro-profane ritual. Every 1st of May, Serpari (snake catchers) capture and showcase dozens of non-venomous snake...