Armadillos and Leprosy

What most people know of leprosy is what they hear about it from stories of poor souls with body parts dropping off as the disease progresses, but who knew that the odd little creature, the armadillo, could transmit the disease to humans? It's true, though. Scientists have found that wild armadillos, about 1 in 6, are carriers of leprosy. Most armadillos live in Texas or Louisiana and it appears that those animals carrying leprosy live in swampy areas. In those humans infected with leprosy, they also tend to live in similar environments, hot and humid. Scientists believe that people can catch leprosy from infected armadillos, but unless they are handled a lot, the chance is pretty remote. Most infections are caught from other people, although zookeepers or animal handlers should be careful if dealing with armadillos.

Nobody is quite sure why armadillos are infected with leprosy, but there are some theories. The armadillo isn't a native animal to the United States, in fact, it has moved up north from Mexico in the 1880s. In other countries where armadillos live, there is also a small percentage infected with leprosy. One theory is that armadillos first became infected with leprosy when they came in contact with humans that already had the disease. Since they are quite effective carriers, they can transmit the disease to other armadillos or people before they die from leprosy themselves. Another theory is that the armadillos caught leprosy from careless researchers who allowed the bacteria to escape into the environment. Other researchers performed tests on frozen armadillo serum from the 1960s, before leprosy testing on them was started and it showed that a small percentage of the animals already had the antibodies in their blood. This meant that they must naturally be infected, rather than picking up the disease from scientific experiments or carelessness.

After testing sample armadillos from various states and countries, researchers arrived at the conclusion that they are actually good candidates for the disease and since armadillos live for up to 15 years, they can harbor the slow growing disease well into adulthood. Due to their long lives, they inhabit the same area for a long time, which makes it easier for people in the area to come in contact with them. In fact, doctors treating the United States acquired leprosy cases in Texas and Louisiana (around 30-40 a year) questioned the patients and found that about a third of them remember having some sort of contact with armadillos, but nobody in their family had leprosy. This equates to the good possibility that they may have caught the disease from the armored little armadillo.