First report of natural infection in hedgehogs with Leishmania major, a possible reservoir of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Algeria.

Highlights: [•] First report of confirmed Leishmania major infection in hedgehogs. [•] We detect Leishmania in skin and spleen tissues by high sensitive qPCR. [•] Serological methods detect specific Leishmania antibodies in hedgehogs. [•] The molecular methods used allow identifying the species involved as L. major. [•] We find out that hedgehogs could be reservoirs of L. major. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]