Friday 18 May 2018

Red squirrels 'may have introduced' leprosy to Britain



11 May 2018

Red squirrels may have brought leprosy to Britain more than 1,000 years ago, scientists have said.

Swiss researchers said DNA taken from a fifth-century victim of the disease in Essex revealed the same strain of leprosy carried by red squirrels today.

The discovery supports the theory that the rodents, once prized for their meat and fur, played a role in the spread of the disease throughout medieval Europe.

Grey squirrels were not introduced to the UK until the 19th Century.

Scientists at the University of Zurich took samples of leprosy DNA from 90 Europeans with skeletal deformations characteristic of the disease from AD400 to AD1,400.

From the fragments they reconstructed 10 new genomes - complete genetic codes - of medieval Mycobacterium leprae, the bug that causes leprosy.

One was from Great Chesterford, Essex, and dated to between AD415 and AD545. It was this leprosy genome, the oldest yet constructed, that contained the red squirrel clue.


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