Leprosy has been hiding out in red squirrels in Great Britain and Ireland, though the painful and disfiguring disease has rarely been transmitted between humans there since the Middle Ages. (sciencenews.org)
Ian Keymer, a retired MAFF vet from Norfolk who has studied fluctuations in red squirrel populations, says parapox is less likely to kill grey squirrels because it only causes disease in animals under stress, caused by food shortages for example. (newscientist.com)
Parapox virus causes a skin disease that wiped out whole populations of red squirrels in parts of southern Britain earlier this century. (newscientist.com)