The native red squirrels found scurrying around the forests of Britain are harboring a secret . The rodents with a preference for nutty and pine cones have beenfound to be carryingmultiple strains of the bacterium responsible for leprosy , including one that caused outbreaks of the disease in humans during the knightly period .
The disease , because of different strains of the bacteriumMycobacterium , was originally notice in crimson squirrel in Scotland in 2014 , but it now appears that the condition is much more rife , and that the downy critter are really infected by two different type . Researchers were first alerted to the job when reports occur in that squirrels were spotted with lesions on their ears , honker , and limbs , with further testing of the endangered creature confirming that they had Hansen’s disease .
Additional analysisof 110 dead red squirrels from all across the UK and Ireland found that different populations were being infected by different strain , eitherMycobacterium lepromatosis , standardised to a human form that is found primarily in Mexico and the Caribbean , andMycobacterium leprae , the strain that is thought to have been creditworthy for infecting people in southerly England during the Medieval period some 700 class ago . It had been intend to have died out .
Why certain population have one melodic line , while others have another is still not understood , but the researcher suggest that it could be affected by sampling , as there are not many of the jeopardize animate being surviving in the UK , meaning they had a fairly small sampling sizing . They are also keen to stress that while it may not be corking news for the enchanting creatures , the risk for humans being infected is still very blue indeed , with the last recorded type of human leprosy acquired in the UK having been in 1798 .
“ The discovery of leprosy in red squirrel is worrying from a preservation perspective but should n’t recruit fear for people in the UK,”explainedProfessor Anna Meredith , from the Royal ( Dick ) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh , and who co - authored this latest study tracking the disease in red squirrels published inScience . “ We need to understand how and why the disease is learn and channel among ruddy squirrel so that we can well deal the disease in this iconic mintage . ”
The work arouse interesting questions about how the animals may do as reservoir for the disease , and how they can persist in the surround even when thought it had long melt . While it may be no menace to humans in the UK ( despite popular belief , the disease is not highly contagious and required taint from bodily fluid ) , it may have logical implication in other voice of the world where human tangency with infect fauna is more common .
