-Caveat Lector- >From www.sfgate.com > > > <Picture: The Gate> www.sfgate.com Return to regular view > > Hidden danger of armadillo meat > By Michael Dougan > OF THE EXAMINER STAFF > Thursday, June 10, 1999 > ©1999 San Francisco Examiner > > URL: > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stori > es/10/armadillos.dtl > > > > > > > > > > Armadillos are in San Francisco, and that could pose a problem: It's > the leprosy thing. > > Unlike killer bees and fire ants, expanding their territories in this > direction, these carapaced critters arrive in The City as > carcasses-on-ice. Typically found in such states as Texas, Louisiana > and Oklahoma, they are turning up in Chinatown food stores, waiting > for an adventurous gourmet to take out his or her wallet and surprise > the family come dinner time. > > City health officials have learned what every Texas school kid already > knows: Armadillos, like humans, can contract leprosy. Also called > Hansen's disease, leprosy is a progressive disease that causes hideous > deformations (go rent "Ben Hur"), though it is now treatable and less > prone to scar those who have it. > > The potential danger of dining on 'dillos was to be discussed Thursday > at a San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission meeting. > > Who eats armadillos? > > "Aggies, mostly," said Texas biologist Jerry Cook, in a wry reference > to students at Texas A&M. Calling college students "Aggies" is not yet > a hate crime in the Lone Star State. > > > > Armadillos in Chinatown > > A tour of Chinatown Wednesday failed to find any armadillos on > display, but a Chinese-speaking reporter discovered two in the freezer > at the New Sang Sang Market on Stockton Street. > > Employees declined to be interviewed, but many passersby stopped to > examine one of the frozen beasts after it had been purchased and > removed from the bag on the sidewalk outside. (At $5.99 a pound, this > armadillo cost $37.50.) > > Some shoppers said they had eaten armadillo in Hong Kong and China. > They said it was mostly used in soup. > > Several Chinatown butchers said they had carried armadillo in the > past, but stopped because they were under the impression it had been > banned. It has not. > > > > The leprosy link > > What is the connection between armadillos and leprosy? > > "I know that they are susceptible to it, and I know they are used as a > laboratory animal in studying the disease," said Cook. "But there's a > long distance between susceptibility and carrying." > > Can leprosy be transmitted from armadillos to humans? > > "The only studies that have been done suggest that people who handle > armadillos - wildlife biologists or people who trap them - have a > slightly higher rate of leprosy than people who have never been > exposed to armadillos," said Jane Mahlow, a physician with the Texas > Department of Health. "The supposition is that people can catch it > from armadillos, although it's never been definitively proven." > > A separate study determined that a higher percentage of leprosy > patients in Los Angeles had been exposed to armadillos than those in a > control group, said Robert Gelbert, a clinical professor at UC-San > Francisco. Gelbert has spent most of his life studying leprosy for the > U.S. Public Health Service. > > "No one believes that armadillos are a major source of transmission of > leprosy," he said. "It spreads from person to person by nasal > droplets, perhaps it gets into the soil or what have you. But > armadillos could play a role." > > > > City on armadillo alert > > City health officials are combing Chinatown markets and restaurants to > find out how much armadillo meat is being sold in The City and where > it comes from, said Ben Gayle of the Health Department staff. Health > officials will present their findings at Thursday's Animal Control and > Welfare Commission meeting. > > "I don't know that it's confined to the Chinatown community, but > that's where we got our first lead from," Gayle said. > > Richard Schulke, chairman of the commission, said the objective was > not to ban sales of armadillo meat, but to make sure it came from a > source that screened the meat for leprosy. That, said Gelbert, would > require a liver biopsy of each animal. > > "I want to make sure that my stuff is clean," said Tina Hayslip, owner > of Sooner Aquatic Foods outside Hugo, Okla., and purveyor of armadillo > meat to Chinatown markets. "I cut the guts out and wash them and > freeze them real good. We have no "road kill' or anything like that." > > Hayslip, who gets her armadillos from local trappers and sells some > 100 pounds of meat a week during peak season, said she didn't > specifically screen for leprosy, nor does she worry about it much. > Hayslip said she handled the dead animals without fear of contracting > the disease. > > "You know that if it comes from Sooner Aquatic, it's going to be good > stuff," said Hayslip, whose primary business is selling live > hard-shell and soft-shell turtles, also to Chinatown distributors. > > After spending a day gutting armadillos, Hayslip admitted she would > not care to eat one. But her veterinarian does. "He just loves them. > He says it's the best-tasting meat," she said. "It's white meat. It's > very pretty meat." > > And safe meat to eat after cooking, said Gelbert. > > He said leprosy was caused by a bacterium that was "no more > (dangerous) than any other bacteria" in cooked meat. > > "Bacteria are killed by cooking," he said. "That's why we can eat > meat. I don't know whether anyone likes their armadillos rare." Julie > Chao of The Examiner staff contributed to this report, but wouldn't > touch the dead armadillo. > > ©1999 San Francisco Examiner > A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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