Leprosy: A zoonosis

Abstract

Naturally-acquired leprosy has been observed in three animal species: nine-banded armadillos, a chimpanzee, and a mangabey monkey. The frequency of the infection in armadillos in the southern United States provides sufficient evidence to allow designation of the armadillo as a reservoir for the disease in this area. Although the prevalence of the infection of chimpanzees and mangabey monkeys in the wild is not known, the existence of spontaneous leprosy in these species requires that they be given consideration in the epidemiology of leprosy in geographic areas inhabited by these animals. The infection found in all three species has been of the lepromatous or near-lepromatous type and therefore highly bacilliferous and contagious. The role that these species play in the transmission of leprosy to man must now be ascertained.