All the infections of wild armadillos thus far are reported as being in animals caught within 39 miles south to southwest of GSRI along the Gulf Coast. Following the appearance of these reports Carville has summarized its experience. No sign of mycobacteriosis was found in any of these animals by these techniques. Both the Atchafalaya and the broad Mississippi River lie between Carville and GSRI and the reported area in which the infected armadillos were captured lies in the opposite direction. The question, though not discussed in these reports, of the possible initiation of a leprosy zoonosis by escaped, experimentally infected armadillos has been raised .
Correspondents state that there is no record of any armadillo having escaped.
If thus marked armadillos escaped, the random chance of coming across one in the midst of the thousands of armadillos in the Louisiana countryside would, however, be very slim unless there had been a massive outbreak of the imprisoned animals. Further, the carapace of these animals is a biological self-renewing structure somewhat in the manner of fingernails. Though the marking paint may adhere well under conditions of captivity where single armadillos, or two animals, are kept in one concrete pen, these conditions are quite different from those in the wild where the animals are in and out of burrows and running through brush and swampy areas. However, it is not necessary to assume that escaped, infected animals might be the source of the zoonosis. We have found that these animals will cannibalize dead armadillos.