Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) due to Leishmania major is a great public health problem in the
Old World. Rodents are important reservoir of causative agent of disease is widely distributed in arid and
savannah regions. Esfaryen district is one of the most important endemic foci of zoonotic cutaneous
leishmaniasis (ZCL) in Northeast of Iran. To identify the reservoir(s) of Leishmania in this focus, a total
of 44 rodents were collected using Sherman traps during September to December 2013.
They were identified as Rhombomys opimus Lichtenstein (72.7%) and Meriones libycus Lichtenstein
(27.3%). Microscopic investigation on blood smear of the animals for amastigote parasites revealed 32
(72.7%) rodents of R. opimus infected with amastigote. L. major infection in these animals was then
confirmed by polymerase chain reaction against internal transcribed spacer ribosomal DNA (rDNA) loci
of the parasite followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism. Further, sequence analysis of 297
bp of ITS1-rDNA loci revealed the presence of L. major in R. opimus.
This is the first molecular report of L. major infection within R. opimus in this region. Our study showed
that R. opimus is the most important host reservoir for maintenance of the parasite source in the area.