<------Fear me!According to this article from the Associated Press, the recent outbreak of leprosy in the Southern United States is most likely linked to the nine-banded armadillo. On average, only 150 cases of leprosy occur in the U.S. each year and the majority of those affected traveled recently to a country where the disease is a lot more common. It had been a mystery where the remaining couple of non-travelers could have picked up the chronic disease until the link between leprosy and the Armadillo was found. Armadillos are one of the few mammals that carry the illness known medically as Hansen's Disease, and the research suggests you have to either frequently handle or eat the meat of the animal to be at risk for contracting leprosy. DNA samples were taken from 33 wild armadillos from a handful of southern states and 50 skin biopsies were taken from leprosy patients at a Baton Rouge clinic. The two samples were tested and found to be genetically similar which confirmed the researcher's hypothesis. If contracted, leprosy is curable and non-contagious after only a couple days of drug treatment although it takes a year or two until the bacteria is completely out of your system.
I don't really see the problem here. The armadillo developed a way to reduce their predation. No one should be eating armadillos anyway, in my opinion. Leave the cute armadillo alone, and he will leave you alone. If you end up with leporsy it wouldn't be a huge deal anyway, and now that we know where you get it from, you learned a valuable lesson.
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