Medieval love of squirrel fur may have helped spread leprosy, study reveals

Skull yields new evidence of link between human and animal leprosy - with red squirrel fur traded with Viking Scandinavia thought to be a factor

Scientists have found evidence that the medieval taste for the beautiful fine fur of red squirrels, traded with Viking Scandinavia, may have been a factor in the spread of leprosy.

The link between human and animal leprosy had already been suggested when the disease was found in modern squirrels in the UK, but the new evidence is from analysis of the skull of a woman who died more than 1,000 years ago in Suffolk, before the Norman invasion.