Ecological habitat of small mammals as reservoirs of Leishmania spp. in the endemic foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis, the north Iran

Small mammals are invasive species to agriculture and food resources worldwide. They are also reservoir hosts for medically and veterinary important zoonotic pathogens worldwide. Identifying ecological environments that serve as different small mammals’ habitats as reservoirs for vector-borne diseases can help us to restrain their populations and manage the place of risk for spreading zoonotic diseases. This study was aimed to collect and identify the small mammals in northern Iran and to investigate the habitats with more potential risk for reservoirs of zoonotic Leishmania. In this survey, 294 specimens of small mammals were collected from the north of Iran between 2019 to 2023. Additionally, the abundance of zoonotic hosts and the rate of Leishmania prevalence reports in small mammals during the last ten years were analyzed to detect the relationship between reservoir distribution and parasitic infection. The collecting specimens belong to 12 families, 20 genera, and 26 species, and the most variety of species were collected from forest areas, while the lowest (4 species) were caught from urban and rural areas. According to the relative abundance index, the four most abundant small mammal species were Rhombomys opimus, Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, and Microtus obscurus. Rhombomys opimus, R. norvegicus, and Meriones libycus exhibit the highest levels of infection. This research, suggests comprehensive studies to detect Leishmania infection to determine new reservoirs in small mammals.