Editorial

Armadillos as a Source of Infection for Leprosy

Authors: Richard Truman, PhD

Abstract

Leprosy appears to have originated in the region of eastern Africa and was spread around the world with the movement of human populations. The disease was not present in the “New World” before the immigration of European settlers, but early case reports suggest that it was well established in North America by the 1700s. Other than man, nine-banded armadillos in the southern United States are the only known highly endemic natural hosts of Mycobacterium leprae, the etiologic agent of leprosy.1 Infected armadillos have been found in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas; but the disease may be absent elsewhere in the range. The highest prevalence rates, averaging 16%, are found among the animals in low lying areas near the Mississippi river and along the coastal margins of Texas and Louisiana. Armadillos must have acquired their disease from humans at some point in time, but the role that they play in the ecology of leprosy in this country is not yet clear.2

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