If you happen to be in the southern United States any time soon, you may want to keep your distance from any stray armadillos that cross your path.
A new study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that these odd-looking armoured creatures can spread leprosy, a potentially disfiguring disease caused by a bacterial infection that damages nerves.
About 150 cases of leprosy are diagnosed in the U.S. each year. Most patients likely acquired the disease while travelling or working abroad. But a third of them, mostly living in Louisiana and Texas, had not left the U.S., suggesting they must have been infected locally.
Armadillos have been under suspicion since the 1970s. But, now, using advanced DNA analysis, scientists have scrutinize samples of the mycobacterium leprae found in wild armadillos and some U.S. patients.
"Our research provides clear DNA evidence that the unique strain found in armadillos is the same as the one in certain humans," said Stewart Cole, of the Global Health Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The scientists warn: "Frequent direct contact with armadillos and cooking and consumption of armadillo meat should be discouraged."
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