Wild chimpanzees have been found to be infected with leprosy for the first time, in two locations in West Africa that are separated by hundreds of miles. Experts discovered two wild chimp populations, in Guinea-Bissau's Cantanhez National Park and Taï National Park in Ivory Coast, that are infected with the disease, as confirmed by faecal samples. But in the last two decades scientists have found it spreading in red squirrels in the UK and armadillos in the Americas, and now, wild chimps. In humans, prevalence of leprosy depends on access to treatment, but no chimpanzees in the wild have ever received treatment for leprosy. Researchers have confirmed the presence of the disease in chimps in Guinea-Bissau’s Cantanhez National Park and in Taï National Park in Ivory Coast, more than 600 miles (1000km) awayThe new-discovered infected chimps are unlikely to have got the disease from infected humans, the experts believe, indicating an unknown source of leprosy in the wild.

Source: Daily Mail November 12, 2020 15:30 UTC