“Nine-banded armadillos, of which there are 30 to 50 million in the southeastern U.S., are believed to be the only significant natural reservoir of leprosy apart from humans.”

Trust me, that count is conservative, especially in Arkansas, where my family is from (El Dorado and Smackover). My granddaddy used to eat dillo; swore it tasted like pork. I was never brave enough to try it and didn’t get his recipe.

It didn’t surprise him they carried leprosy. “Durn things are a Biblical plague all by themselves.” As a church-going Methodist his range of language was restricted, but nothing could test his control like dillos in his watermelon crop.

[I didn't know that. Another immigration problem. Round them up and ship them back to Texas where they belong.]