August 25, 2025
Pest spread from Europe to Asia thousands of years ago in a mysterious way. Scientists now think that they know how it was transferred

Pest spread from Europe to Asia thousands of years ago in a mysterious way. Scientists now think that they know how it was transferred

An illness has been repeated for thousands of years, the old Eurasia, which quickly spread far and wide. The bite of infected fleas, which lived on rats, passed the plague in its notorious form – the black death of the 14th century – for humans and today remains its most common form of transmission.

During the Bronze Age, the plague bacterium Yersinia Pestis had not yet developed the genetic tool kit, with which later tribes could be distributed by fleas. Scientists were amazed at how the disease could have stopped at that time.

Now an international team of researchers has the first old Yersinia Pestis genome restored by a non-human host-a domesticated sheep of the Bronze Age, which lived in today’s modern Russia about 4,000 years ago. The discovery enabled scientists to better understand the transfer and ecology of the disease in the old past, which caused them to assume that the cattle played a role in its distribution throughout Eurasia. The results were published on Monday in the magazine Cell.

The genome of Y. Pestis was recovered by this 4,000 -year -old sheep tooth. - with the kind permission of Taylor Hermes

The genome of Y. Pestis was recovered by this 4,000 -year -old sheep tooth. – with the kind permission of Taylor Hermes

“Yersinia Pestis is a zoonotic disease (transferred between humans and animals) that was created during the history. The researchers wrote almost 200 years of pestis genomes.

Finding the old bacterium in an animal not only helps the researchers to understand how the bacterial line has developed, but it could also have an impact on understanding modern diseases, added Light-Maka by email. “Evolution can sometimes be” lazy “and find the same type of solution independent of a similar problem – the genetic tools that thrive for over 2000 years for over 2000 years in over Eurasia.”

Develop the secret of a bronze time plague

The old bacterium, which today the plague caused in Eurasia, which is now known as the line of the late Neolithic Bronze Age, spread from Europe to Mongolia, with the disease being detected in 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles).

Recent knowledge indicates that the majority of modern human diseases have emerged in the past 10,000 years and that the domestication of animals such as cattle and pets is released, according to the German research institute. Scientists suspected that other animals were part of the huge puzzle of the plague transmission of the Bronze Age, but without bacterial genomes won by animal hosts, it was not clear which one.

In order to find the old plague genome, the authors of the study examined the students from an archaeological site in Russia, which is known as ARKAIM. The settlement was once associated with a culture called Sintashta-Petrovka, which is known for its innovations in the cattle. There the researchers discovered the missing connection of a 4,000-year-old sheep, which was infected with the same plague bacteria that can be found in people from this area.

Finding infected cattle suggests that the domesticated sheep served as a bridge between humans and infected wild animals, said Dr. Taylor Hermes, co -author of the study and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas.

“We reveal this in real time and try to get a feeling for how the nomadic shepherds of the Bronze Age in the Eurasian steppe set the stage for the transmission of illness, which may have an effect elsewhere,” said Hermes, “not only in time, but also in a distant, distant landscape.”

During this time within the Eurasian steppe, up to 20% of the body in some cemeteries are those of people who were infected with the plague and most likely died of the plague, which makes them an extremely omnipresent disease, said Hermes. While the cattle are apparently part of what the disease has spread so widely, they are only part of the puzzle. The identification of the bacterial line in an animal opens up new possibilities for researching the development of this disease as well as the later descent, which caused the black death in Europe and the plague that is still present today.

“It is not surprising, but it is very cool to see (the DNA), which is isolated from an old animal. It is extremely difficult to find it in humans, and this is really interesting and significant with animal residues,” wrote Hendrik Poinar, evolutionary geneticist and director of the old DNA center at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Ontario, Ontario, Ontario, Ontario, Ontario. wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail, wrote in an e -mail. Poinar was not involved in the study.

It is likely that people and animals went back and forth, but it is not clear how they did – or how sheep were infected at all. It is possible that sheep picked up the bacteria through a food or water source and then transferred the disease to humans via the contaminated meat of the animal, he added.

“I think it shows how very successful (if you want to describe it) this special pathogen was,” added Poinar. He and the authors of the study said that they hope that further investigations will uncover other animals that are infected with the old stress to improve the understanding of the spread and development of the disease.

Old plague to modern plague

While the plague line that existed during the Bronze Age, Yersinia Pestis is still in parts of Africa and Asia as well as in the western United States, Brazil and Peru. However, it is rare to meet the bacteria, with only 1,000 to 2,000 cases of plague worldwide.

The London plague shown here in 1665 was caused by Yersinia Pestis. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group on Getty Images) - Universal History Archive/Getty Images

The London plague shown here in 1665 was caused by Yersinia Pestis. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group on Getty Images) – Universal History Archive/Getty Images

There is no alarm when it comes to dealing with cattle and pets, said Hermes. The results remind you that animals have diseases that are transferable for humans. Be careful when cooking meat or to be careful of an animal when biting, he added.

“Taking away is that people are not alone in diseases, and this has been in the case of thousands of years. The way we change our environment drastically and how wild and domesticated animals are connected to us have the potential to change the way in our communities,” said Light-Maka. “And when you see a dead prairie dog, you may not touch it.”

Tayioli is a freelance journalist in New York.

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