One of the last remaining members of the order of Xenarthra who roamed the earth some 55 million years ago.
Until recently, this remarkable creature was best known for its "armor plating". Two leathery shields, one in front and the other at the back. Connected by 9 or more horny bands - that protects it from predators. But in recent years, this survivor of pre historic times mas been helping scientists solve one of the worlds most pernicious problems: leprosy.
Today, leprosy is not as rare as is often thought.
In many parts of of the world it's still a major crippling disease and in it's severe form can lead to blindness, disfigurement and deformity.
In Africa and Southeast Asia, as many as 15 million people are thought to be affected and it's reported that about 5000 people in the United States are afflicted with it. Although drugs can be used to control the more severe forms of leprosy, no complete, Although drugs can be used to control the more severe forms of leprosy, no complete cure has ever been found, and until now, it appears that 5000 people in the United States are afflicted by it.
Although drugs can be used to control the more severe forms of leprosy, no complete cure has ever been found, and until now the possibility possibility of a vaccine has been remote. Although Armauer Hansen, a Norwegian scientist has identified the organism responsible for the disease (Mycobacterium Leprae)
in 1873, the bacillus refused to grow in the laboratory. Consequently tests that might have lead to a vaccine could not be carried out. Nor could the bacillus be grown or tested in animals because the scientists could not find any that were susceptible to leprosy.
New hope of eradicating leprosy worldwide came in 1972 when two American scientists, Eleanor Storrs and Waldemar Kirchheimer discovered a link between leprosy and armadillos.
Storrs who had been studying armadillos for some time, believed that they might make suitable candidates for the leprosy experiments. In the first place, armadillos have a lower body temperature than any other mammal and it is known that leprosy attacks the cooler extremities of the body. Also, armadillos lived for up to 15 years - long enough to develop the disease, which has a protracted incubation period. Finally, their tendency to produce litters of identical quadruplets offered a perfect opportunity to test a long - held theory that susceptibility to leprosy might be inherited.
After several experiments on armadillos in the Public Service Hospital at Carville, Louisiana, the team got the proof they needed, when one of the armadillos developed the disease and died. A few years later, the researchers inoculated 11 sets of quadruplet armadillos. Within 6 months one set of four had developed leprosy almost simultaneously. The odds of this happening was extremely rare so earlier theories of inherited susceptibility were supported.
Infected armadillo tissue provides a substance called lepromin; which once it's injected into a leprosy patient, it indicates how likely he or she is to be infected by the disease. Therefore extreme cases can be singled out at an early stage and monitored.
Thanks to this natures armor plated hero, the nine banded armadillo, this age-old disease may soon be eradicated completely.
