study sites - north sinai is located in the northeastern part of egypt 
 ( 30.5n 33.6e ) , marking the point of connection between asia and africa . north sinai is 
 bordered by the gulf of suez , the red sea and the mediterranean sea and is inhabited 
 mainly by bedouins . the regions comprise the following districts : el - hassana , beer el 
 abd , nekhel , sheikh zuweid , beer lehfen and rafah ( fig . 
 1 ) . the study sites were selected based on the distribution of cl cases in 
 sinai to understand the potential role of both the sandfly and rodent in the dynamics of 
 leishmania transmission ( samy 
 2009 , ministry of health of egypt , unpublished observations ) . the 
 weather in north sinai is characterised as hot and dry , with marked differences in 
 temperature between day and night . dramatic weather - related changes , as presented by the 
 annual averages of environmental factors during the study period from january 
 2005-december 2011 , are listed in supplementary data and some habitats are illustrated 
 in fig . 2 . 
 fig . 1 : regional and local map of the study sites in north sinai . the six 
 districts of north sinai are denoted by black dots and egypt with the black 
 solid line . 2 : sampling localities showing different habitat types . a : wire - box rodent 
 traps used during the study with an individual rodent collected during the 
 study ; b : rodent burrows ; c : habitat of low hygiene support rodent and sandfly 
 populations ; d : a sample of the outdoor habitats sampled in the study . sandfly collection and processing - sandfly collection was carried out 
 using sticky paper traps and cdc light traps ( lt ) ( john w hock , gainesville , fl , usa ) 
 for eight nights / year . five collection sites were selected randomly to represent each 
 district in the study ; 10 cdc lt and 50 sticky traps ( st ) were used for each study 
 district ( 2 cdc and 10 st / collection site ) . the collection sites were chosen to 
 represent the most productive ones for fly capture based on our preliminary studies 
 conducted in different sites of sinai . the recovered st were placed in labelled plastic bags , transported to 
 a temporary field laboratory and then sent to the research and training centre 
 laboratory ( rtc ) of ain shams university , cairo for processing . the live flies captured by the cdc traps were 
 collected with a mechanical aspirator and dissected in saline with 50 u / ml of amikacin 
 sulphate on a glass slide . the digestive tract was examined under an optical microscope 
 with 400x magnification to identify flies harbouring parasites in their gut and for 
 species identification via morphological keys ( lane 1986 ) . female digestive tracts that had flagellates were transferred to an 
 eppendorf tube with saline containing 50 u / ml of amikacin sulphate and then inoculated 
 into novy mac neal nicolle ( nnn ) culture medium . rodent trapping and processing - rodents were trapped using wire - box 
 rodent traps ( morsy et al . each district 
 was represented by five - eight collection sites where 10 - 18 traps each were used ; the 
 traps were set before sunset and recovered the next morning . the rodents were identified 
 using regional taxonomic keys ( osborn & helmy 
 1980 ) and then transported to the ain shams animal facility where they were 
 maintained for at least six months to observe the development of any characteristic 
 leishmania lesions . full - thickness punch - biopsies were removed from 
 the border of suspected lesions and processed for parasite isolation in nnn medium . giemsa - stained impression smears were also performed for the lesions and examined for 
 the presence of leishmania amastigotes ( soliman 2006 ) . all care and use of animals was conducted in compliance with 
 the animal welfare act and in accordance with the principles set forth in the guide for 
 the care and use of laboratory animals , institute of laboratory guiding principles for 
 biomedical research involving animals ( cioms 
 1985 ) . molecular characterisation of leishmania cultures - isolates from 
 rodents and sandflies with suspected leishmania parasites were 
 initially inoculated from tissue samples and maintained in culture medium through 
 subculture passages in nnn culture medium with 500 iu penicillin g / ml of blood . promastigotes from positive cultures were transferred to glass vials containing 
 schneider s drosophila cell culture medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum 
 ( sigma , saint louis , mo , usa and gibco - brl , gaithersburg , md , usa ) for mass rearing . one millilitre of each high - density ( ~1 x 10 cells ml ) 
 leishmania culture was concentrated by centrifugation at 12,000 
 g for 10 min . dna was extracted from the pellet using the qiagen dna 
 mini kit ( qiagen , valencia , ca , usa ) . approximately 25 l of the culture pellet was 
 transferred to a sterile 1.5 ml tube , extracted as per the protocol instructions and 
 eluted in 100 l elution buffer . the ribosomal its-1 was amplified using the primer pair l5.8s and litsr ( el tai et al . amplicons were analysed on 1.5% 
 agarose gels by electrophoresis and visualised by ultraviolet light . a reaction was 
 considered positive when a band of the correct size ( 300 - 350 bp ) was observed . the 
 polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ) product was digested with the restriction endonuclease 
 haeiii . the restriction fragment length polymorphism - pcr approach 
 was applied for the detection and identification of leishmania 
 parasites in the rodent and sandfly isolates . fragments were separated by 
 electrophoresis on 2.5% agarose gels and compared with those of reference strains of 
 l. major ( mhom / eg/06/rtc-63 ) and l. tropica 
 ( mger / eg/06/rtc-74 ) using distilled water as a negative control . . 1997 ) was used to estimate the 
 biodiversity index for both the sandfly and rodent populations . the bray - curtis 
 similarity was used in cluster analysis to estimate the similarity between the sandfly 
 or rodent populations across different districts of north sinai , egypt . chi - squared 
 analysis was used to test the deviation of the resulting fly sex ratios ( female : male ) 
 from the expected 1:1 ratio . ethics - verbal informed consent was obtained from the heads of the 
 households from which sandflies were collected . we provided detailed information about 
 the vector - borne diseases with a special focus on leishmaniasis risk , vectors and 
 reservoirs in language understandable to the local bedouins communities . we also 
 provided information for community - based control measures to help the communities to 
 protect themselves against disease risk . the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily 
 reflect the official policy or position of the egyptian or the united states of america 
 government . the experiments reported herein were conducted in compliance with the animal 
 welfare act and in accordance with the principles set forth in the guide for the care 
 and use of laboratory animals , institute of laboratory animals resources , national 
 research council , national academy press and council for international organizations of 
 medical sciences . sandfly species composition - a total of 9,849 sandflies were collected 
 from different districts during the study ( table 
 i ) on 56 nights using 480 cdc and 2,800 st . males comprised 62.8% ( n = 6184 ) 
 of the catch ( female : male ratio of 0.6 ) . a total of 23.3% ( 404 males , 1,892 females ) of 
 the collected flies were caught indoors and the rest of the flies were caught outdoors 
 and from around the rodent burrows . these flies represented six species of two genera : 
 p. ( phlebotomus ) papatasi ( scopoli ) , phlebotomus 
 ( paraphlebotomus ) kazeruni ( theodor & mesghali ) , p. 
 ( paraphlebotomus ) sergenti ( parrot ) , phlebotomus ( paraphlebotomus ) 
 ale- xandri ( sinton ) , sergentomyia ( sergentomyia ) antennata 
 ( newst . ) and sergentomyia ( sintonius ) clydei ( sinton ) . the 
 predominant species was p. papatasi ( 83.5 % , 8,221 flies ) , 
 whereas p. sergenti and p. kazeruni represented 9% 
 and 3.3% of the total , respectively . p. alexandri , the vl vector , represented only 1% and was found in 
 limited distribution in nekhel . table iphlebotomine sandflies collected by cdc light traps ( lt ) and sticky paper 
 traps ( st ) from six districts of north sinai , egypt , from january 2005-december 
 2011  number of collected flies ( f : m )   speciescollection methodel 
 hassananekhelrafahbeer 
 el abdbeer 
 lehfenseikh 
 zuweidtotalratio 
 ( f : m ) 
 phlebotomus papatasi 
 lt383/142813/156966/23117/44546/35831/172,756/9482.9:1st141/1,069121/85585/1,33625/6988/6634/61464/4,0531:8.7 
 phlebotomus kazeruni 
 ltna / na29/17na / nana / nana / nana / na29/171.7:1stna / na52/225na / nana / nana / nana / na52/2251:4.3 
 phlebotomus sergenti 
 lt24/2345/12614/73na / na5/17na / na88/2391:2.7st2/9881/22177/43na / na2/37na / na162/3991:2.4 
 phlebotomus alexandri 
 ltna / na26/43na / nana / nana / nana / na26/431:1.6stna / na0/33na / nana / nana / nana / na0/330 
 sergentomyia antennata 
 lt3/14/40/23/70/1na / na10/151:1.5st1/2027/331/44/190/12na / na33/881:2.7 
 sergentomyia clydei 
 lt1/2na / nana / na3/6na / nana / na4/81:2st10/2118/292/1510/471/4na / na41/1161:2.8 

 totallt411/168917/346980/30623/57551/37631/172,913/1,2702.3:1st154/1,208299/1,396165/1,39839/13591/7164/61752/4,9141:6.5f : female ; m : male ; na : not available . sandfly sex ratios - sex ratios ( females : males ) showed that males were 
 overall approximately twice as common , with an overall sex ratio of 1:1.7 . there was a 
 difference between the sex ratios of different sandfly species using both trapping 
 methods ; the cdc traps collected more females than males for both the p. 
 papatasi and p. kazeruni collections , but more males were 
 collected from both species when the sticky paper traps were used ( table i ) . both trapping methods collected more 
 males of p. sergenti , p. alexandri , s. 
 antennata and s. clydei . the chi - squared analysis revealed 
 a significant difference ( p = 0.00 ) between the overall sex ratio ( female : male ) and the 
 equilibrium 1:1 sex ratio for all species , except with regard to the cdc collection of 
 p. kazeruni ( p = 0.08 ) , s. antennata ( p = 0.32 ) and 
 s. clydei ( p = 0.25 ) . sandfly natural infection - the results of sandfly dissections revealed 
 the presence of leishmania - like flagellates in 15 p. 
 papatasi specimens ( 0.5% of 3,008 dissected females ) . none of the p. 
 kazeruni , p. sergenti and p. alexandri 
 individuals were infected ( table ii ) . there was 
 a significant difference in the infection rate between the different districts ( p < 
 0.05 ) ; the highest infection rates were in beer lehfen ( 0.73% ) and rafah ( 0.72% ) , 
 whereas the infection rates in nekhel and el - hassana were low ( 0.37% and 0.26% , 
 respectively ) . all the females collected from beer el abd and sheikh zuweid were 
 negative for infection . the leishmania - like flagellates were inoculated 
 into nnn medium and the parasites survived in only six out of 15 culture passages . table iinumber and species of phlebotomus (  ) dissected and 
 naturally infected with leishmania major in different 
 districts of north sinai , egypt , from 2005 - 2011speciesel 
 hassana n ( % ) nekhel n ( % ) rafah 
 n ( % ) beer 
 el abd n ( % ) beer 
 lehfen n ( % ) sheikh zuweid n ( % ) 
 phlebotomus papatasi 
 383 ( 0.26)813 ( 0.37)966 ( 0.72)17 ( 0)546 ( 0.73)31 ( 0 ) 
 phlebotomus kazeruni 
 0 ( 0)29 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0 ) 
 phlebotomus sergenti 
 24 ( 0)126 ( 0)73 ( 0)0 ( 0)5 ( 0)0 ( 0 ) 
 phlebotomus alexandri 
 0 ( 0)26 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0 ) 

 total407 ( 0.24)994 ( 0.30)1,039 ( 0.67)17 ( 0)551 ( 0.72)31 ( 0 ) 
 
 rodent species composition and natural infections - a total of 159 
 individual rodents were collected from different districts ( table iii ) . these rodents represented eight species : rattus 
 norvegicus ( n = 39 ) , rattus rattus frugivorous ( n = 
 13 ) , rattus rattus alexandrinus ( n = 4 ) , gerbillus pyramidum 
 floweri ( n = 38 ) , gerbillus andersoni ( n = 28 ) , mus 
 musculus ( n = 5 ) , meriones sacramenti ( n = 22 ) and 
 meriones crassus ( n = 10 ) . thirty - two rodents were found to be positive for 
 infection by amastigote impression smear testing : g. p. floweri ( n = 
 16 ) , g. andersoni ( n = 5 ) , r. norvegicus ( n = 
 7 ) , r. r. frugivorous ( n = 3 ) and r. r. alexandrinus 
 ( n = 1 ) ( table iii ) . none of the m. musculus , m. sacramenti and 
 m. crassus specimens were positive for leishmania 
 infection . the infected rodents included rodents collected from el - hassana ( 1 r. 
 r. alexandrinus ) , rafah ( 7 r. norvegicus , 14 g. p. 
 floweri and 5 g. andersoni ) and beer lehfen ( 3 r. 
 r. frugivorous and 2 g. p. floweri ) . no positive infections 
 were found in the rodents collected from the nekhel , beer el - abd and sheikh zuweid . all 
 rodent samples were inoculated into nnn medium and the parasites survived in 29 out of 
 32 culture passages . table iiinumber of rodents trapped in different districts of north sinai , egypt , 
 from 2005 - 2011 and infection percentages with leishmania 
 speciesel 
 hassana n ( % ) nekhel n ( % ) rafah 
 n ( % ) beer 
 el abd n ( % ) beer 
 lehfen n ( % ) sheikh zuweid n ( % ) total 
 n ( % ) 
 rattus norvegicus 
 1 ( 0)0 ( 0)34 ( 20.58)1 ( 0)0 ( 0)3 ( 0)39 ( 18 ) 
 rattus rattus frugivorous 
 2 ( 0)1 ( 0)0 ( 0)1 ( 0)9 ( 33.33)0 ( 0)13 ( 23.07 ) 
 rattus rattus alexandrinus 
 3 ( 33.33)1 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)4 ( 25 ) 
 gerbillus pyramidum floweri 
 0 ( 0)0 ( 0)31 ( 45.16)0 ( 0)7 ( 28.57)0 ( 0)38 ( 42.10 ) 
 gerbillus andersoni 
 0 ( 0)0 ( 0)23 ( 21.74)0 ( 0)1 ( 0)4 ( 0)28 ( 17.85 ) 
 mus musculus 
 2 ( 0)1 ( 0)1 ( 0)0 ( 0)0 ( 0)1 ( 0)5 ( 0 ) 
 meriones sacramenti 
 0 ( 0)0 ( 0)19 ( 0)0 ( 0)3 ( 0)0 ( 0)22 ( 0 ) 
 meriones crassus 
 0 ( 0)0 ( 0)8 ( 0)0 ( 0)1 ( 0)1 ( 0)10 ( 0 ) 

 total8 ( 12.5)3 ( 0)116 ( 22.41)2 ( 0)21 ( 21.73)9 ( 0)159 ( 20.12 ) 
 
 sandfly , rodent diversity and habitat clustering : sandfly species 
 diversity - both simpson diversity and berger - parker dominance indices 
 revealed different diversity between the different districts , with the highest overall 
 diversity in nehkel and beer el abd ; the least diverse site was sheikh zuweid , where 
 p. papatasi was the only species occurring at this site ( fig . 3 : biodiversity index of both the sandfly and rodent populations collected 
 from six districts of north sinai . a : the simpson ( 1-d ) and berger - parker 
 dominance biodiversity index for the sandfly species ( 1/d ) ; b : the shannon ( h ) 
 and berger - parker dominance biodiversity index for the rodent species . rodent species diversity - all districts sampled in the study had a 
 different diversity index based on both shannon ( h ) and berger - parker dominance indices 
 of rodent populations ( fig . the highest 
 overall diversity index was that of rafah ( 1/d = 3.412 , h both nekhel and 
 beer lehfen had higher diversity indices compared to el - hassana , beer el abd and sheikh 
 zuweid . habitat clustering - bray curtis cluster analysis of the different 
 districts in north sinai revealed levels of similarity between the habitats clusters . based on the sandflies collected from the different districts , two clusters were 
 identified : sheikh zuweid and beer el abd formed a distinct cluster separated from the 
 rest of the districts , which comprised a different cluster ( fig . however , the cluster analysis based on rodent data 
 revealed different cluster patterns than those produced by the sandfly data , with both 
 beer lehfen and rafah forming a distinct cluster and the other districts comprising 
 another cluster in which beer el abd was separated from the lower part of the core 
 ( fig . 4b ) . finally , the bray curtis analysis 
 for the combination of the sandfly and rodent data formed two distinct clusters : one 
 included both sheikh zuweid and beer el abd and the second cluster included the other 
 districts , with rafah separated from the lower part of the core ( fig . 4 : dendrogram from bray - curtis cluster analysis based on the sandfly 
 populations data ( a ) , rodents populations data in six districts of sinai 
 peninsula ( b ) and both the sandfly and rodents populations data ( c ) . leishmania identification and characterisation - thirty - five samples 
 from both the infected sandfly p. papatasi ( n = 6 ) and rodent 
 reservoirs ( n = 29 ) produced viable cultures in nnn medium . these samples were found to be positive for l. 
 major dna only ( supplementary data ) . twenty - nine 
 rodent samples found to be positive for l. major were r. 
 norvegicus ( n = 7 ) , r. r. frugivorous ( n = 3 ) , r. 
 r. alexandrinus ( n = 1 ) , g. p. floweri ( n = 13 ) and 
 g. andersoni ( n = 5 ) . all l. major - infected rodents 
 were collected from the rafah ( n = 23 ) , beer lehfen ( n = 5 ) and el - hassana ( n = 1 ) , with 
 no evidence for the presence of infections in the beer el abd , nekhel and sheikh 
 zuweid . this study represents a comprehensive report of seven years in north sinai and provides 
 evidence for the circulation of only one species of the leishmania 
 parasite . previous studies in egypt reported the presence of only l. 
 major circulating in sinai ( wahba et al . 2003 ) , though the most recent study in 
 sinai reported the incursion of cl caused by l. tropica in a remote 
 border area of north sinai on the egyptian - palestinian border . the possibility of the 
 incursion of l. tropica from neighbouring countries could not be 
 excluded according to a recent study ( shehata et al . therefore , we carried out our study to reveal insight into the 
 ecological system for cl transmission with regard to sandflies and rodents by examining 
 of several criteria used by the who to implicate either the vector(s ) or 
 reservoir(s ) . there are several criteria adopted by the world health organization ( who ) to implicate 
 p. papatasi as the potential vector for circulation of leishmaniasis 
 in sinai , including anthropophilic behaviour , the ability to feed on the reservoir 
 host(s ) , the presence of natural infections , the ability to support the growth of the 
 parasite and the ability to transmit the parasite by bites ( who 2010 ) . however , the results revealed no evidence for the presence of infection in most of the 
 sandflies collected ; for instance , the only species found infected with 
 leishmania promastigotes was p. papatasi , with an 
 infection rate close to 0.5% . the sandfly p. papatasi , the potential 
 vector of l. major in the sinai peninsula ( wahba et al . 2009 ) , was the most prevalent sandfly in our catches . in the current study , 
 most p. papatasi females were caught indoors and in large numbers , 
 whereas , more males were collected outdoors . the difference in the indoor and outdoor 
 catches reported here might suggest that female p. papatasi is more 
 endophagic compared to p. sergenti , p. kazeruni and p. 
 alexandri . there was a significant difference in the infection rates of the 
 sandflies between different study districts , which might be attributed to the host 
 preference of p. papatasi for different vertebrates . the host 
 preference is influenced by the availability of hosts , for example , p. 
 papatasi in beer lehfen and rafah had infection rates approximately 0.73% 
 and 0.72% , respectively , correlating with the high density of gerbils at both sites . to understand cl eco - epidemiology , the ecology of the animal reservoir populations and 
 their roles in disease transmission were also considered in our study . the most 
 predominant species sampled in all the districts was r. norvegicus , 
 previously identified in similar habitats in sinai as a potential leishmaniasis 
 reservoir host ( morsy et al . 1992 ) . however , the 
 current study revealed the presence of infections in g. p. floweri , r. rattus 
 and g. andersoni ; infections were also recovered from 
 r. norvegicus . similar observations were reported in different sites 
 in egypt ( morsy et al . 1992 , fryauff et al . 1993 ) , but , interestingly , these 
 observations also refer to the difference in the eco - epidemiology of cl in egypt and 
 other countries ; for instance , jordan and morocco , where psammomys 
 obesus was identified as the potential animal reservoir ( saliba et al . the burrows of p. obesus are identified by 
 halophytic vegetation and by the remnants of plant material at the entrances ( who 2010 ) . the structure of habitats in the six 
 districts of the current study was relatively similar to the p. obesus 
 habitat , but with no record for the species during the seven years of collection . several criteria were also proposed by the who for the implication of animal reservoirs 
 ( who 2010 ) with cl transmission ; one such 
 criterion was fulfilled by isolating the parasite from wild rodents with positive 
 infections collected from different sites in the study . secondly , the parasite was found 
 to be identical to that isolated from patients attending clinics in north sinai 
 communities ( am samy , unpublished observations ) . some criteria depend on the 
 availability of the parasite in the skin in sufficient numbers for the sandfly to 
 transmit . 2006 ) to infer the potential 
 role of these animals in the dynamics of this disease . throughout the late phases of our study , we used cluster analysis to infer similarity 
 between the habitats using the data from the collection of sandflies , rodents or the 
 combination of both . interestingly , the areas identified to have disease risk formed a 
 distinct cluster , for instance , the distinct cluster that included rafah , nekhel , beer 
 lehfen and el hassana ( fig . these 
 observations revealed the importance of multivariate methods in the study of disease 
 ecology and in inferring the area with a favourable habitat for cl circulation . one of 
 the interesting findings of this study was the presence of infections in different 
 animal reservoirs that were not necessarily previously known as potential reservoirs 
 ( morsy et al . these changes in the animal hosts may be a 
 response to climate change , especially in the presence of continuous heavy rains and 
 floods in sinai . these environmental changes coincided with the increase in cl incidence 
 in sinai due to a change in the vector and rodent populations and consequently a change 
 in the disease dynamics in the area . our report identified the presence of only l. major , whereas no 
 l. tropica was detected during seven years of observations in the 
 study areas . 2009 ) may be allochthonous , i.e. , the parasite may 
 have originated from other sites where l. tropica is established ( jacobson et al . sergenti , the presumed 
 vector of l. tropica , was found in this study , though we found no rock 
 hyraxes , the main l. tropica reservoir in countries including israel 
 and kenya ( mebrahtu et al . other factors that could 
 mask the dynamics of l. tropica transmission might include differences 
 in the seasonality of vectors or distinct reservoir populations for different 
 transmission cycles ( faulde et al . l. major infections circulate in the country through different seasons 
 of the year , with three incidence peaks in november , march and august and few sporadic 
 cases were reported during the rest of the year . these peaks correspond to the time 
 after the peaks of sandfly abundance ( samy 2009 , 
 fahmy et al . the continuous circulation 
 of l. major is maintained by the highest densities of both the 
 p. papatasi and gerbil populations after the heavy rains that are 
 considered as favourable habitats for the survival of the vector and reservoir 
 populations . the number of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis ( zcl ) cases is still 
 underestimated due to the bedouin traditions of preventing females to visit clinics and 
 their dependence on leishmaniasis treatment using routine heat therapy . the mean annual 
 cases reported to the official public health centres in north sinai during 2006 - 2011 
 were 296.67 cases ( ministry of health of egypt , unpublished observations ) , with the 
 highest infection rate reported during 2008 - 2010 due to a change in environmental 
 conditions . toward the end of this period , the incidence of zcl caused by l. 
 major decreased after control efforts for both vectors and rodent reservoirs 
 by the egyptian ministry of health . due to such continuous disease dynamics in response 
 to environmental changes , we plan in our future research to investigate the potential 
 role of rodent populations in the circulation of the parasite in the sinai , to study in 
 detail the coarse - resolution ecology and to study the biogeography of disease through 
 mapping exercises and site suitability analysis using efficient quantitative 
 techniques .
cutaneous leishmaniasis ( cl ) is a neglected clinical form of public health importance 
 that is quite prevalent in the northern and eastern parts of egypt . 
 a comprehensive 
 study over seven years ( january 2005-december 2011 ) was conducted to track cl 
 transmission with respect to both sandfly vectors and animal reservoirs . 
 the study 
 identified six sandfly species collected from different districts in north sinai : 
 phlebotomus papatasi , phlebotomus kazeruni , 
 phlebotomus sergenti , phlebotomus alexandri , 
 sergentomyia antennata and sergentomyia clydei . 
 leishmania ( -)-like flagellates were identified in 15 p. 
 papatasi individuals ( 0.5% of 3,008 dissected females ) . 
 rodent 
 populations were sampled in the same districts where sandflies were collected and 
 eight species were identified : rattus norvegicus ( n = 39 ) , 
 rattus rattus frugivorous ( n = 13 ) , rattus rattus 
 alexandrinus ( n = 4 ) , gerbillus pyramidum floweri ( n = 
 38 ) , gerbillus andersoni ( n = 28 ) , mus musculus ( n 
 = 5 ) , meriones sacramenti ( n = 22 ) and meriones 
 crassus ( n = 10 ) . 
 thirty - two rodents were found to be positive for 
 leishmania infection ( 20.12% of 159 examined rodents ) . only 
 leishmania major was isolated and identified in 100% of the 
 parasite samples . 
 the diversity of both the vector and rodent populations was 
 examined using diversity indices and clustering approaches .