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 ...

Photomacrograph of the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana. Leeches are aquatic, blood sucking, segmented worms, which mainly feed on mammalian blood. In a single feed they can consume over 3 times their ...

A Smithsonian researcher was part of the international team that discovered a new species of North American medicinal (human-feeding) leech, Macrobdella mimicus. (Ian Cook) National Treasure ...

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 research team focused on medicinal leeches as a potential solution. Medicinal leeches inject various components, including a protein called hirudin, which acts as an anticoagulant when feeding.