For the first time the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis has been bred in captivity at London zoo, part of a longer-term project to help this fascinating if unloved creature. Once widespread in ...

An international team of museum scientists led by Anna Phillips, the Smithsonian's curator of parasitic worms, describe Macrobdella mimicus, the first new species of medicinal leech discovered in ...

A recent genetic analysis of the medicinal leech has revealed that one species should be classified as three, and suggests that many leeches sold commercially have been misidentified -- oversights ...

Medicinal leech therapy has a long history in traditional medicine, particularly in the treatment of various ailments related to blood circulation. Recent research has focused on the therapeutic ...

Two hundred years ago Wales laid claim to being the leech-farming capital of Europe and once again it is back on the map. In the Victorian era Britain used over 42 million leeches a year for ...

When it comes to threatened species it is hard to get romantic about the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) — it just doesn’t have the cuddly attraction of red squirrels or wild cats. By the ...

ANKARA, November 19. /TASS/. Customs officials at Istanbul International Airport have confiscated 5,000 medicinal leeches from two Russian citizens after they could not produce the paperwork for ...

The clinical utility of subcutaneous hirudins is discussed. The term "hirudins" refers to a class of antithrombotic agents structurally derived from the medicinal leech salivary protein hirudin.