Armadillos and Leprosy

Genetic sequencing confirms armadillos can transmit some leprosy strains to humans.
The AP (4/28, Chang) reports, "With some genetic sleuthing, scientists have fingered a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the southern US: the nine-banded armadillo." According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, DNA tests "show a match in the leprosy strain between some patients and these prehistoric-looking critters."
Bloomberg News (4/28, Ostrow) reports that the researchers identified the "same strain of leprosy in 28 of 33 wild armadillos and 25 of 39 patients who lived in states where the animals are common." Exposure to "fresh armadillo blood or tissue raises the risk of leprosy infection," the study authors said.
The New York Times (4/28, A7, Harris, Subscription Publication) reports that the cases are concentrated in "Louisiana and Texas, where some people hunt, skin and eat armadillos." Leprosy now joins a "host of other infectious diseases -- including flu, HIV/AIDS and SARS -- that are known to have jumped from animals to humans."
The Los Angeles Times (4/28, Brown) notes that annually, about "100 to 150 people" in the US are "diagnosed with the malady, which is also known as Hansen's disease. ... 'It doesn't mean people need to run away from armadillos the way they do a rattlesnake, but people need to be careful,'" said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, which "helped fund the research."