More than 50% of armadillos carry leprosy

[rangerrebew]

News Biology 29 June 2018
More than 50% of armadillos carry leprosy
Popular Brazilian bush meat explains high disease rate in the Amazon. Fiona McMillan reports.
 

New research shows that many armadillos in the Brazilian Amazon carry the bacteria that causes leprosy.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, suggest the disease is likely being transmitted to local humans who use armadillos as a dietary source of protein.

Leprosy, which is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, is a slowly developing chronic disease that if left untreated causes skin lesions as well as nerve damage, leading to muscle atrophy, paralysis and blindness. Recent evidence shows that it infects immune cells in the vicinity of nerve endings. The cells then destroy the protective myelin layer on the nerves and damages the nerve fibres. It is considered an infectious neurodegenerative disease.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/more-than-50-of-armadillos-carry-leprosy

[andy58-in-nh]

Does that mean they are coming out of their shells?

[the_doc]

We've known for many decades that armadillos carry leprosy, but the 50% figure in Brazil is pretty stunning.

I doubt that it's that high in the U.S. armadillo population, but I just don't know.  (I doubt that we would have overlooked such a super-high prevalence of leprosy in armadillos if it was that bad in the U.S. during the Great Depression.  (I have never heard of a serious leprosy epidemic in the U.S, and this despite the fact that a lot of folks ate "Hoover hogs" [armadillos] in the Depression.