Possums’ ulcer link

SCIENTISTS are investigating whether possums are the hosts carrying a flesh-eating disease affecting Australians.

Public health experts are collecting possum poo from a number of locations in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula to be analysed for the presence of the bacterium responsible for buruli ulcer.

Victoria’s Department of Health said the work followed earlier efforts to investigate links between possums and mosquitoes in the transmission of the disease to humans.

Australia is the only developed country reporting significant local transmission of mycobacterium ulcerans.