Free Republic

Leprosy, one of the oldest recorded diseases in human history, remains prevalent in Asia, Africa, and South America, with over 200,000 cases every year.1,2 Although ancient DNA (aDNA) approaches on the major causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, have elucidated the disease’s evolutionary history,3,4,5 the role of animal hosts and interspecies transmission in the past remains unexplored. Research has uncovered relationships between medieval strains isolated from archaeological human remains and modern animal hosts such as the red squirrel in England.6,7 However, the time frame, distribution, and direction of transmissions remains unknown. Here, we studied 25 human and 12 squirrel samples from two...

Some people in Britain hate grey squirrels enough to devour them. With the UK’s biggest purveyor of fried chicken in crisis, perhaps we should be cooking up our furry feral friendsne cold Sunday morning last month, I visited Pow Hill, a glorious moorland thick with pine trees that overlooks the Derwent reservoir, north-west of Durham. In a clearing, three amateur wildlife photographers, in full camouflage gear, sat on plastic bags and watched a red squirrel race across the bracken. As I watched the little fella leap from log to tree, the sunlight dancing across its tail, naturally my thoughts turned...

Red squirrels are carrying human leprosy and people have been warned to stay away from the animals to minimise the risk of catching the disease. One of the strains – which is affecting squirrels on Brownsea Island, off the south coast of Dorset – shares close similarities with that responsible for outbreaks of the disease in medieval Europe. Researchers tested 25 samples from red squirrels on the island and found that all were infected with the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae, though not all showed signs of the disease. Those that did had swelling and hair loss on the ears, muzzle and...

The UK's dwindling population of red squirrels has been thrown a lifeline with the opening of a forest refuge. The inexorable advance of the grey squirrel has left the reds isolated in just a few parts of the country. Whinfell Forest in Cumbria contains conifer trees disliked by greys and has been declared a haven for its red occupants, of which there are currently about 150. A chain of similar refuges is planned across the north-west, one of the reds' last remaining strongholds in Britain. The botanist David Bellamy, who is launching the haven, told BBC Radio Five Live that...