Abstract

Cutaneous leishmaniasis ranks among the tropical diseases least known and most neglected in Libya. World Health Organization reports recognized associations of Phlebotomus papatasi, Psammomys obesus, and Meriones spp., with transmission of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL; caused by Leishmania major) across Libya. Here, we map risk of ZCL infection based on occurrence records of L. major, P. papatasi, and four potential animal reservoirs (Meriones libycus, Meriones shawi, Psammomys obesus, and Gerbillus gerbillus). Ecological niche models identified limited risk areas for ZCL across the northern coast of the country; most species associated with ZCL transmission were confined to this same region, but some had ranges extending to central Libya. All ENM predictions were significant based on partial ROC tests. As a further evaluation of L. major ENM predictions, we compared predictions with 98 additional independent records provided by the Libyan National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC); all of these records fell inside the belt predicted as suitable for ZCL. We tested ecological niche similarity among vector, parasite, and reservoir species and could not reject any null hypotheses of niche similarity. Finally, we tested among possible combinations of vector and reservoir that could predict all recent human ZCL cases reported by NCDC; only three combinations could anticipate the distribution of human cases across the country.

Highlights

  • Leishmaniasis remains one of the major public health problems in the Mediterranean Basin

  • Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) represents a major public health problem in North Africa where Leishmania major is the potential etiological agent associated with all zoonotic CL (ZCL) cases

  • We introduced ecological niche model as a tool for risk-mapping of both ZCL cases and distributions of associated species

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Summary

Introduction

Leishmaniasis remains one of the major public health problems in the Mediterranean Basin. Leishmania major is the etiological agent of zoonotic CL (ZCL), where the parasite is thought to circulate in small-mammal reservoirs (Meriones libycus Lichtenstein, 1823 (Rodentia: Muridae), Gerbillus gerbillus Olivier, 1801 (Rodentia: Muridae), Psammomys obesus Cretzschmar, 1828 (Rodentia: Muridae), M. shawi Duvernoy, 1842 (Rodentia: Muridae)) and is transmitted by the sand fly Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli), 1786 (Diptera: Psychodidae) [2,7,8]. Leishmania tropica is the causative organism for anthroponotic CL (ACL); zoonotic foci have been reported from rock hyrax in Kenya, and Israel [9,10], and gerbil in Egypt [11], where the disease is transmitted by the sand fly P. sergenti Parrot, 1917 (Diptera: Psychodidae) [10,11]

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