SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 19 submissions in the queue.
SoylentNews
Leprosy has been hiding out in red squirrels in Great Britain and Ireland, though the painful and disfiguring disease hasn't been transmitted between humans there for several centuries.
The endangered bushy-tailed rodents (Sciurus vulgaris) have tested positive for leprosy-causing bacteria in several locations around the British Isles, researchers report November 11 in Science.
"It goes to show that once a disease has become extinct in humans, it could still exist in the environment if there was a suitable reservoir," says study coauthor Stewart Cole, director of the Global Health Institute at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. In this case, squirrels seem to be ideal incubators for leprosy bacteria.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
British Red Squirrels Serve as Leprosy Reservoir
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 14 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday November 14 2016, @11:53PM
I am a little sad Hopper Crowder didn’t win the election to eliminate the squirrel menace, but at least Big Squirrel didn’t get into the white house.