IN BRIEF

摘要

Red squirrels in the UK and Ireland have been found to carry several strains of leprosy. In a study of no dead red squirrels, those in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Wight were found to be carrying a bacterial strain that is closely related to a virulent form of leprosy endemic in Mexico. Animals on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour carried a different strain, similar to one previously found in a 730-year-old skeleton buried just 70 kilometres away (Science, doi.org/bsxx).