Prevalence of Leishmania species in rodents: A systematic review and meta-analysis in Iran

Leishmaniasis are diverse group of diseases caused by numerous species of genus Leishmania. Herein we have
contrived a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of Leishmania species in rodents of Iran. For
this purpose, following the general methodology recommended for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, six
English databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Ovid, Web of Science and Google Scholar) and four Persian
databases (Magiran, SID, Iran Doc and Iran Medex) were explored during January 1995 till June 2015. Papers
were selected based on 8 pre-defined inclusion criteria. During the years, a total number of 4485 different
rodents were captured; among which 1291 cases were Leishmania positive. The calculated weighted prevalence
of Leishmania species in rodents was 23% (95% CI= 18–28). Given geographical zones of Iran, the highest and
lowest prevalence rate was belonged to North 50% (95% CI=40–61) and West 11% (95% CI=5–17),
respectively. Rhombomys opimus (1766), Meriones lybicus (1258) and Tatera indica (488) were the three most
abundant captured rodents, while the highest prevalence of Leishmania species was observed in Nesokia indica
48% (95% CI =42–54) and followed by R. opimus 39% (95% CI= 30–47). Egger’s regression test was
performed to detect publication bias, which revealed it may not have a significant influence on overall weighted
prevalence estimate (P =0.317). Meta-regression analysis demonstrated that there is no significant relationship
between overall prevalence with sample size (P=0.1) and year of publication (P= 0.7). The results showed
remarkable prevalence of Leishmania species in rodent reservoirs. In future, adopting a suitable strategy for
control and combat with rodents is necessary.