Bacteria

In a scientific first, an international team of researchers from the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States has found evidence to suggest that at least one species of animal was passing leprosy on to humans in medieval England. The animal in question is the red squirrel, a creature that lived in even closer proximity to people in the Middle Ages than it does today. While contact with armadillos has been identified as a risk for leprosy in the modern age, never before has a medieval animal been linked to leprosy outbreaks experienced by human populations in more ancient times. Studies have shown that modern red squirrels do carry the bacteria that causes leprosy. But there is no evidence of