Whole-genome resequencing of
M. leprae from one wild armadillo and three U.S. patients with leprosy revealed that the infective strains were essentially identical. Comparative genomic analysis of these strains and
M. leprae strains from Asia and Brazil identified 51 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and an 11-bp insertion–deletion. We genotyped these polymorphic sites, in combination with 10 variable-number tandem repeats, in
M. leprae strains obtained from 33 wild armadillos from five southern states, 50 U.S. outpatients seen at a clinic in Louisiana, and 64 Venezuelan patients, as well as in four foreign reference strains...