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BackgroundCutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is one of the most neglected tropical diseases in Morocco. Leishmania major and L. tropica are the main culprits identified in all endemic foci across the country. These two etiological agents are transmitted by Phlebotomus papatasi and P. sergenti, the two most prevalent sand fly species in Morocco. Previous studies reflected gaps of knowledge regarding the environmental fingerprints that affect the distribution of these two potential vectors across Morocco.MethodsThe sand flies were collected from 48 districts across Morocco using sticky paper traps. Collected specimens were preserved in 70 % ethanol for further processing and identification. Male and female densities were calculated in each site to examine their relations to the environmental conditions across these sites. The study used 19 environmental variables including precipitation, aridity, elevation, soil variables and a composite representing maximum, minimum and mean of day- and night-time Land Surface Temperature (LST), and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).ResultsA total of 11,717 specimens were collected during this entomological survey. These specimens represented 11 species of two genera; Phlebotomus and Sergentomyia. Correlations of the sand fly densities with the environmental variables were estimated to identify the variables which influence the distribution of the two potential vectors, Phlebotomus papatasi and P. sergenti, associated with all CL endemic foci across the country. The density of P. papatasi was most affected by temperature changes. The study showed a significant positive correlation between the densities of both sexes of P. papatasi and night-time temperatures. Both P. papatasi and P. sergenti showed a negative correlation with aridity, but, such correlation was only significant in case of P. papatasi.NDVI showed a positive correlation only with densities of P. sergenti, while, soil PH and soil water stress were negatively correlated with the densities of both males and females of only P. papatasi.ConclusionsOur results identified the sand fly species across all CL endemic sites and underlined the influences of night-time temperature, soil water stress and NDVI as the most important variables affecting the sand fly distribution in all sampled sites. This preliminary study considered the importance of these covariates to anticipate the potential distribution of P. papatasi and P. sergenti in Morocco.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1343-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dogs are the major reservoir ofLeishmania infantum, the causative agent of human and canine visceral leishmaniasis in the Mediterranean basin. In Morocco, canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is usually believed to be widespread mainly, if not only, in the northern regions and few data are available about the situation in southern parts of the country. Here, we report the results of a preliminary, clinical, and serological study carried out in 2004–2007, in four provinces of southern Morocco. Serological analyses were processed using two different Elisa techniques, a homemade Elisa test and IDVET commercial kit, and confirmed by two different western blot (WB) tests, homemade and LDBIO commercial kits. We highlighted the presence of CanL infection in southern regions, known until then as free of the disease: 19.8% (48/243) of examined dogs displayed clinical signs compatible with CanL and the seroprevalence was particularly high, respectively, 81.8% and 87.8% by Elisa and western blot tests. Our current developed and validated homemade (Elisa and WB) tools will be cost-effective and useful for next large-scale epidemiological studies on Moroccan leishmaniasis animal reservoir.