Human/armadillo leprosy link found

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 29 (UPI) -- U.S. and Swiss researchers say DNA analysis and fieldwork have confirmed a link between leprosy infection in Americans and direct contact with armadillos.

A team of U.S. and Swiss scientists say a never-before-seen strain of Mycobacterium leprae has emerged in the U.S. South and is transmitted through contact with armadillos carrying the disease.

DNA analysis of both armadillo and human samples done at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland confirmed the disease is transmitted though contact with armadillos, the only other known carriers of the leprosy-causing bacteria besides humans.

It has been known since the 1970s that armadillos are potential carriers of the disease, most likely introduced by European immigrants 500 years ago, but the current study shows interspecies contamination and the presence of a unique strain, a release by the Swiss institution said.

"There is a very strong association between the geographic location of the presence of this particular strain of M. leprae and the presence of armadillos in the Southern United States," Stewart Cole, head of the Global Health Institute in Lausanne, said. "Our research provides clear DNA evidence that the unique strain found in armadillos is the same as the one in certain humans."

The findings have prompted the researchers to state in their published results that "frequent direct contact with armadillos and cooking and consumption of armadillo meat should be discouraged."