Other Animal (But Non-Buggy) Crackers

Previous legend || Other Animal (But Non-Buggy) Crackers || Next legend

No title

True: Armadillos can contract leprosy.

This was first discovered in 1971 by researchers at the Gulf South Research Institute in New Iberia, Louisiana, who used armadillos as a kind of living petri dish to culture the bacterium that causes leprosy.

Whether wild armadillos contract leprosy is less clear. Armadillos with leprosy, or at least a leprosy-like condition, were found in the wild in Louisiana in the 1970s; there was significant dispute about whether these animals were infected in the wild or escaped from the GSRI colony. The dispute seems not to have been resolved, but leprosy has not been reported in wild armadillos outside Louisiana and its immediate surroundings.

Cite: Skinsnes, O. "Leprosy" in wild armadillos. International Journal of Leprosy 44 (3) 1976, 376-377.

In Dispute: Armadillos can spread leprosy to humans.

In the 1980s, unspecified "medical journals" are said to have reported human cases of leprosy in Texas and Louisiana, where the victims could not be linked to humans with leprosy but had handled armadillos. More solid citations would be welcome here.

References:

• Online copy of the Skinsnes paper cited above.