There are only two reservoirs for the causative agent for leprosy (Hansen's disease), Mycobacterium leprae. 1. Humans 2. 9-banded armadillos But there was no evidence of Hansen's in the Americas prior to Columbus & armadillos are exclusively New World animals, which means...
The way I see it, it was just some dude’s really bad afternoon. Sailing on to a “new world” that sucks and doesn’t have anything that they want that’s back in Europe. Their stupid rash just keeps getting worse, and on top of it the armored squirrel they caught for lunch just ran away
How negatively are the armadillos themselves affected? Does it cause the same necrosis that it does in us?
...that humans (Europeans, specifically) infected 'dillos with leprosy no more than 500 years ago. The legacy of Columbus is creating the only animal reservoir of leprosy. And now they give it back to us, about 15 cases per year can be traced to contact with 9-band 'dillos.
Medieval lepers in Britain seem to have somehow infected red squirrels with leprosy
Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in the British Isles are the most recently discovered animal reservoir for the leprosy bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Initial d...
Are you saying the white colonizers fucked an armadillo? 😂 bc they probably did. Idk
That is one of the funniest things I’ve seen
My mom's maiden name was Hansen, hence her high school nickname "Leppy"
biology so crazy like out of all the animals just this one rando
Other armadillo species too, then?