Infection during Infancy and Long Incubation Period of Leprosy Suggested in a Case of a Chimpanzee Used for Medical Research

Abstract

The length of the incubation period of leprosy following Mycobacterium leprae infection has never been conclusively determined, owing to the lack of a method to demonstrate the presence of an asymptomatic infection. We report a rare case of leprosy in a chimpanzee in which a 30-year incubation period was strongly suggested by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis.