Maybe don't shoot any more armadillos...

[Sharptop]

Armadillos May Spread Leprosy
New disease strain shows up in patients and animals in Deep South
Posted: April 28, 2011
Study

By Nathan Seppa, Science News

People infected with leprosy in the United States often have the same previously unknown strain of the microbe Mycobacterium leprae that is also carried by armadillos. Though it's been known for decades that armadillos can harbor leprosy, also called Hansen's disease, the discovery of the overlapping strain strengthens the long-held assumption that armadillos can infect people directly.  


Researchers report in the April 28 New England Journal of Medicine that many infected people in the Deep South contracted leprosy while close to home—not in some exotic locale where the disease is more common. The only possible infectious agents would be an armadillo or person. Some of the infected people had even handled armadillos, the only animal known to harbor leprosy.

The findings all point to animal-to-person spread. "It's still not a smoking gun, but it's getting awfully close," says James Loughry, a zoologist and armadillo expert at Valdosta State University in Georgia who wasn't involved in this project. "It's hard to imagine that it's not being transmitted from armadillos to humans."

Richard Truman, a microbiologist at the Na­tional Hansen's Dis­ease Pro­gram and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and his colleagues compared bacterial samples from 50 patients in Louisiana and from 33 infected wild armadillos from five southern states. A highly specific strain of the bacterium showed up in 28 of the 33 animals and in 22 of 29 patients who had never lived outside the United States and Mexico. Interviews with 15 of the leprosy patients further revealed that eight had had direct contact with armadillos.

Loughry says roughly 6 to 10 percent of armadillos he has tested in Alabama and Mississippi have leprosy. Other studies place the rate as high as 20 percent in the wild.

There are many kinds of armadillos in Latin America, including the nine-banded armadillo—the only one found in the United States—but it's not known if the other types contract leprosy.

Since John James Audubon and John Bachman recorded in the 1840s that armadillos lived in southern Texas, mainly near the lower Rio Grande, nine-banded armadillos have expanded their range to much of the Deep South and northward to the southern tip of Illinois.

It remains unclear how an armadillo would transmit leprosy. Truman speculates close contact is required.

"Actual causality is difficult to confirm," he says.

It's also not clear whether armadillos, which get sick from leprosy, are infectious during the long incubation period preceding symptoms.

But it's well-known that leprosy spreads among people. And the limited exposure people have to armadillos means that some person-to-person transmission must be happening in southern states where cases show up, Truman says.

Leprosy remains very rare in the United States, with about 150 new cases each year, says James Krahenbuhl, director of the Na­tional Hansen's Dis­ease Pro­gram. "Public education can actually decrease disease risk by limiting contacts [with armadillos] and increasing awareness among physicians in these locations," he says. The disease is curable, but can require more than a year of antibiotics.

[Guru]

It has been a long time fact that dilla's carry Leprosy...

Won't keep me from shooting one if given the chance, most ranchers/farmers want them gone!

[bigbadjon]

I know UF's agriculture school was doing a study about this in Sarasota and they were paying for captures armadillos at one point. Luckily I find armadillos to be interesting observations,and sometimes disappointing distractions, with no desire to shoot them.

[Izzy]

Theyre one ugly, cursed, unnatural looking creature that scare me more than any critter I can think of. They give me the creeps just looking at them much less pull a $25 arrow from their unholy looking carcasses. I filmed one up close and he had a crusty scab at the tip of his tail and ears. I can only guess it was leprosy.

[Pon]

and yet they taste great!!!

[pdk25]

Destructive vermin. Between my arrows and the dog, we have removed over 30 from my place in the last 10 months. Not even close to getting all of them.

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

Reckon ill start wearing gloves when I skin em now...

[Red Beastmaster]

Ray Hammond says if you don't bite their tails you don't have to worry about leprosy.

He says the tails don't taste that good anyway.  

[wapiti792]

Uh-Oh no more dilla's on the half-shell  

[House]

Now that right there is funny wapiti!!!  

Travis

[Swinestalker]

I have lost or had broken many arrows I've shot an armadillo with. I finally learned to shoot them length wise instead of broadside (seems to immobilize them quicker) and have recently done better getting my arrows back in one piece.

[LimBender]

First it was squirrel brains and madcow, and now this! Sacre bleu!

[David M. Mathis]

How many reports of Leprosy has there been reported in the U.S. from Armadillos? Any confirmed cases? Mike

[GO Rogers]

Spray em down with 50% H2O AND 50% Clorox.

[Three Finger]

I remember as a kid down in louisiana out hunting with my dad. We saw an armadillo and snuck up on it and it just went into its shell. My dad walked over and stood on its back with both feet while holding on to a small tree. The dillo just stood up and walked away like nobody was on his back. I couldn't beleive how strong those things were. Later that yr I shot one with my wheel bow. I was about 12.

[BuckyT]

Originally posted by Guru:
It has been a long time fact that dilla's carry Leprosy...

Won't keep me from shooting one if given the chance, most ranchers/farmers want them gone!

I just shoot em and let him lay where they dropped.

[bkyrdshooter]

My uncle in Florida calls them "hard shelled opossums". I have only seen one that wasn't dead or in a cage at a zoo. I would assume the are like groundhogs here in Ohio.

[Mike Vines]

All the more reason to kill them.

[LimBender]

I just hate that right at twilight one always seems to either make me think its a deer or make a bee line straight for my stand causing all kinds of racket.

[The Whittler]

I think they are so ugly that they are cute lol. They must of been put here for a purpose, but I think God only knows and maybe He forgot lol.