Pollution threatens to wipe out UK’s life-saving leeches

The medicinal leech is in danger of extinction in the UK because of water pollution, environmentalists say.

The creatures – once widespread across the country – are in as few as 25 ponds in Kent, hampshire and Cumbria. It is the only British leech that can suck blood from humans.

Worming treatments for farm animals leaking into ponds are thought to have killed the leeches, according to the Freshwater habitats Trust (FhT). They are still used by the NhS to improve blood flow, but are bred in laboratories.

Dr Jeremy Biggs, of the FhT, said the leeches ‘could easily go extinct in this country within 25 years’.

The charity hopes to reintroduce them to good-quality waters which used to have leeches.

‘We are thinking of doing that in Yorkshire, and it could be around the fringes of the New Forest, and there are some possibilities in the Lake District as well,’ Dr Biggs said.

Medicinal leeches do not spread any diseases to humans, and their bite is painless as they produce natural painkillers in their saliva.