[Billthedrill]

The organism is Mycobacterium leprae - hard to kill, really hard to culture. When I was an undergraduate the only place you could culture the thing was, yes, armadillo foot pads. I swear I am not making that up.

[Myrddin]

My undergraduate lab had pretty "mint green" agar slants with waxy, orange colonies of M. tuberculosis. Handled with much care under the vent hood and with a nice electric incinerator for the needles in place of flaming in a Bunsen burner.

[exDemMom]

When I was an undergraduate the only place you could culture the thing was, yes, armadillo foot pads.

I thought they were cultured in mouse foot pads.

In any case, it is a fairly cruel way to have to culture a bug, since it causes pain to an animal.

I'm trying to remember--is the mycobacterium leprae an obligate intracellular parasite? I think it is. It's been a while since I took a bacterial pathogenesis class.