“They’re happy, they’re full,” she said as the young leeches, squirming and swollen from their meal, settled into the containers that would be their home until the next feeding.
Lepyoshkina’s charges were among the three million leeches raised every year at the International Medical Leech Centre, an institution founded in 1937 that touts itself as the world’s largest leech-growing facility.
Located in Udelnaya, a village of humble wooden houses several miles south-east of Moscow, the centre is now enjoying strong sales as scientists reassess their attitude to the bloodsucking creatures.
Researchers, Western governments and even Hollywood stars have endorsed the use of leeches in recent years, after decades during which the practice of bleeding with leeches fell into disuse and was regarded as a relic of medieval times.
