Posted on 04/30/2011 4:55:16 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Armadillos blamed for leprosy
A strain of leprosy found in armadillos has been identified in dozens of people in the southern United States, indicating the skin disease can be transmitted directly from animals to humans.
6:19PM BST 28 Apr 2011
The report published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the disease, most often found in India, can originate in the United States and infect humans who hunt armadillo and butcher the meat.
Leprosy, sometimes called Hansen's disease after the Norwegian doctor who discovered it in 1873, is a bacterial infection that causes lesions on a person's extremities.
About 249,000 new cases were reported globally in 2008, and about 150 cases arise in the United States each year.
Left untreated, it can lead to blindness and nerve damage that cripples the hands and feet, but it is usually curable with antibiotics.
The team of US and Swiss researchers looked at 50 leprosy patients in the United States and 33 wild armadillos with the disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Thanks for posting the Lone Star Beer armadillo photos, I’m having to work up a knitting program for Nine Banded Armadillo boot socks, and a clear shot of how the bands look is hard to come by. Should look pretty cool, the pattern’s going to be drop stitch on a flat knit with lycra. Does the species always appear beige-brown-grey like this? I thought they were shades of grey.
If you want to get rid of annoying house guests, you might find it useful. Bring it out at the last moment, and most of them probably hit the door immediately.
I have known that armadillos are carriers of leprosy for most of my life. I wonder what percentage of the animals are carriers and do they die of it as well?
I have no idea! I was privileged to live in Texas for about a year in 1979/80. I remember a great advertisement for Lone Star Beer in which the fat, tall, old wife of a short, fat, cigar-ed millionaire mocked her husband with, “I know all about the armadillo!”
I do remember a LOT of roadkill armadillos though.
:-)
Me too.
Why are they treating this as some new discovery?
Around here (the South), we've know this our whole lives.
I’ve heard they have an odd habit of jumping and rolling into a ball when frightened, leading to getting embedded in the grilles of oncoming traffic, or worse, ping-ponged into the windshield.
I’ve only seen one live one in person, drove out to New Mexico from North Carolina during summer break when I was in college to visit with my dad in Las Cruces, he was setting up a manufacturing plant and was there for six weeks. That one was grey, almost silvery.
There was a long time leper colony in Carville, La. (Yes, like James Carville) that closed years ago. I often wonder why. Perhaps the National Health Service decided it was not contagious.
Pretty much the only critters who even *get* leprosy.
Armadillo is the most gristly meat I’ve ever eaten.
Have you ever eaten Blue Marlin? We tried but there is a tough membrane about every half inch. It wasn’t worth the effort.
Like leprosy.
The original Hoover Hog of the 1930s depression, now the Obama Approved Pork roast.
In Texas, you gotta eat around the tire tracks.
This information came out decades ago. I know because it scared the hell out of me and made a big enough impression that I quit eating Armadillo chili.
Armadillo, tastes like automobile tires.
They have moved into middle Tennessee. I saw 2 dead ones next to each other on our road this week.
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