Red squirrel leprosy reservoir in Britain

[guy]

A red squirrel infected with leprosy (Hansen’s disease) causing infiltration and destruction of this animal’s ear.

There is genetic evidence of M. leprae infection in Medieval English red squirrels. “The medieval red squirrel strain we recovered is more closely related to medieval human strains from the same city than to strains isolated from infected modern red squirrels.”

Despite being a host for leprosy, it is uncertain whether squirrels were an animal vector for human leprosy infection during the Middle Ages. These findings support the theory that leprosy was transmitted by squirrel fur trade, however.

In the Southern USA, armadillos are both a reservoir of leprosy (Hansen’s disease) and a frequent vector of human leprosy cases in the South.

 

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00446-9

 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/british-red-squirrels-serve-leprosy-reservoir

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240503111918.htm

Edited May 5 by guy

[caldrail]

???? !!!!!!!!!!!

[caesar novus]

I was surprised to learn that squirrels host the same bubonic plague flea as rats. Someone recently died in NM of plague. A lot of people are attracted to squirrels and want to hand feed them etc, unlike rats.

A surprising number of folks think reptiles are cute to handle. Nih.gov sez:

Quote

study showed a high occurrence of Salmonella, being the highest at 92.2% in snakes, followed by lizards (83.7%) and turtles (60.0%). The pathogen was also found in 81.2% of swabs taken from table and floor surfaces after reptile exhibitions and in two out of three egg samples.

 

Edited May 5 by caesar novus

[guidoLaMoto]

Amazing bit of archeological work. Better living thru chemistry, as the saying goes....It's a common and wise survival strategy for a pathogen to have at least two host species to infect-- kill off one and hide in the other until the population of the first recovers.

Squirrels are just rats with bushy tails....Those of us who live where hardwoods are the norm are accustomed to seeing squirrels fill the niche living in the canopy and eating nuts... In southern California (where the nuts live in mansions & sea side villas) the trees are palms and the common rat has taken over the niche of living in the canopy and eating the date nuts-- big problem in some neighborhoods in LA.

[guy]

It was know for several years that red squirrels were a host for leprosy.

it is only recently, however, that genomic studies (looking at complete DNA sequences) of both Medieval squirrels and human skeletons of that era were examined. It showed a direct link between red squirrels and human leprosy in the Middle Ages.

The consumption of red squirrel meat and using squirrel fur promoted this zoonotic (spread from animals to people) infection.

 

 

It is known that in some areas of Texas and Louisiana armadillos were shown to be infected by leprosy more than 15% of the time. A recent outbreak of leprosy in Florida has been directly tied to armadillos. There is some concern that “armadillos may contaminate soil with the leprosy bacteria by burrowing and defecating, infecting humans who later handle soil.” (See article below)

One study in Brazil showed that more than 60% of armadillos harbored leprosy. Here is a picture of a man in nearby Ecuador preparing armadillo meat. Brazil is known to have 11.6% of the cases of leprosy worldwide. (India by far has the largest number of cases.)

 

 

https://epi.ufl.edu/2023/10/16/leprosy-in-florida-medical-experts-monitoring-unusual-new-cases-of-hansens-disease/

 

https://theconversation.com/humans-gave-leprosy-to-armadillos-now-they-are-giving-it-back-to-us-99915

Edited May 5 by guy

[Crispina]

Ditto caldrail.

[guy]

This is a case report of a 77 year-old man from Wisconsin (upper Midwest United States) who contracted Leprosy (Hansen’s disease). His travel history over the last two decades includes Mississippi, Arkansas, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and Ireland.

He denies exposure to armadillos or red squirrels. 

The cause of his disease was M. lepromatosis (and not M. leprae which is found only in armadillos). M. lepromatosis has only been detected in red squirrels found in England, Ireland, and Scotland. 
 

This is thought to be the first modern documented case of zoonotic (from animals to human) spread of leprosy, possibly from red squirrels in Ireland.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10874168/

Edited May 11 by guy