Yersinia Pestis Bacteria Confirmed as Cause of Middle Ages 'Black Death' Plague Epidemic
Jack Linthicum
Map at the citation.
"The history of this pandemic," stated Stephanie Hänsch, Institute for
Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, "is much
more complicated than we had previously thought."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101008112420.htm
Yersinia Pestis Bacteria Confirmed as Cause of Middle Ages 'Black
Death' Plague Epidemic
Geographical position of the five archaeological sites investigated.
Green dots indicate the sites. Also indicated are two likely
independent infection routes (black and red dotted arrows) for the
spread of the Black Death (1347-1353) after Benedictow. (Credit:
Besansky et al. Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black
Death. PLoS Pathogens, 2010; 6 (10): e1001134 DOI: 10.1371/
journal.ppat.1001134)
ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2010) — The latest tests conducted by
anthropologists at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have
proven that the bacteria Yersinia pestis was indeed the causative
agent behind the "Black Death" that raged across Europe in the Middle
Ages.
The cause of the epidemic has always remained highly controversial and
other pathogens were often named as possible causes, in particular for
the northern European regions. Using DNA and protein analyses from
skeletons of plague victims, an international team led by the
scientists from Mainz has now conclusively shown that Yersinia pestis
was responsible for the Black Death in the 14th century and the
subsequent epidemics that continued to erupt throughout the European
continent for the next 400 years. The tests conducted on genetic
material from mass graves in five countries also identified at least
two previously unknown types of Yersinia pestis that occurred as
pathogens.
"Our findings indicate that the plague traveled to Europe over at
least two channels, which then went their own individual ways,"
explains Dr Barbara Bramanti from the Institute of Anthropology of
Mainz University. The works, published in the open access journal PLoS
Pathogens, now provide the necessary basis for conducting a detailed
historical reconstruction of how this illness spread.
For a number of years, Barbara Bramanti has been researching major
epidemics that were rampant throughout Europe and their possible
selective consequences as part of a project funded by the German
Research Foundation (DFG). For the recently published work, 76 human
skeletons were examined from suspected mass graves for plague victims
in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. While other
infections such as leprosy can be easily identified long after death
by the deformed bones, the problem faced in the search for plague
victims lies in the fact that the illness can lead to death within
just a few days and leaves no visible traces.
With luck, DNA of the pathogen may still be present for many years in
the dental pulp or traces of proteins in the bones. Even then it is
difficult to detect, and may be distorted through possible
contamination. The team led by Bramanti found their results by
analyzing old genetic material, also known as ancient DNA (aDNA): Ten
specimens from France, England, and the Netherlands showed a Yersinia
pestis-specific gene. Because the samples from Parma, Italy and
Augsburg, Germany gave no results, they were subjected to another
method known as immunochromatography (similar to the method used in
home pregnancy tests for example), this time with success.
Once the infection with Yersinia pestis had been conclusively proven,
Stephanie Hänsch and Barbara Bramanti used an analysis of around 20
markers to test if one of the known bacteria types "orientalis" or
"medievalis" was present. But neither of these two types was found.
Instead, two unknown forms were identified, which are older and differ
from the modern pathogens found in Africa, America, the Middle East,
and the former Soviet Union regions. One of these two types, which are
thought to have contributed significantly to the catastrophic course
of the plague in the 14th century, most probably no longer exists
today. The other appears to have similarities with types that were
recently isolated in Asia.
In their reconstruction, Hänsch and Bramanti show an infection path
that runs from the initial transportation of the pathogen from Asia to
Marseille in November 1347, through western France to northern France
and over to England. Because a different type of Yersinia pestis was
found in Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands, the two scientists believe
that the South of the Netherlands was not directly infected from
England or France, but rather from the North. This would indicate
another infection route, which ran from Norway via Friesland and down
to the Netherlands. Further investigations are required to uncover the
complete route of the epidemic.
"The history of this pandemic," stated Hänsch, "is much more
complicated than we had previously thought."
Editor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment.
Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death
Several historical epidemic waves of plague have been attributed to
Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of modern plague. The most famous
of these was the second pandemic which was active in Europe from AD
1347 until 1750, and began with the ‘Black Death’. The most
informative method to establish the etiological nature of these
ancient infections should be the analysis of ancient DNA, but the
results of this method have been controversial. Here, by combining
ancient DNA analyses and protein-specific detection, we demonstrate
unambiguously that Y. pestis caused the Black Death. Furthermore, we
show that at least two variants of Y. pestis spread over Europe during
the second pandemic. The analysis of up to 20 diagnostic markers
reveals that the two variants evolved near the time that phylogenetic
branches 1 and 2 separated and may no longer exist. Our results thus
resolve a long-standing debate about the etiology of the Black Death
and provide key information about the evolution of the plague bacillus
and the spread of the disease during the Middle Ages.
Stephanie Haensch1, Raffaella Bianucci2,3, Michel Signoli3,4,
Minoarisoa Rajerison5, Michael Schultz6, Sacha Kacki7,8, Marco
Vermunt9, Darlene A. Weston10,11,12, Derek Hurst13, Mark Achtman14,
Elisabeth Carniel15, Barbara Bramanti1*
1 Institute for Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz,
Germany, 2 Laboratory of Criminalistic Sciences Department of Anatomy,
Pharmacology and Legal Medicine, University of Turin, Turin, Italy, 3
Unité d'Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Faculté de Medecine, University
of Mediterranean-CNRS-EFS, Marseille, France, 4 Centre d'Études
Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-âge, UMR 6130 CNRS–250 University of
Nice, Valbonne, France, 5 Center for Plague, Institute Pasteur de
Madagascar, World Health Organization Collaborating, Antananarivo,
Madagascar, 6 Department of Anatomy and Embryology Medical Faculty,
Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany, 7 Inrap, Villeneuve-
d'Ascq Archaeological Center, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France, 8 Laboratoire
d'Anthropologie des Populations du Passé, Université Bordeaux 1,
Talence, France, 9 Department of Monuments and Archaeology,
Municipality of Bergen op Zoom, Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands, 10
Barge's Anthropologica, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden
University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, 11 Division of
Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West
Yorkshire, United Kingdom, 12 Department of Human Evolution, Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, 13
Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service,
Worcestershire County Council, Worcester, United Kingdom, 14
Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork,
Ireland, 15 Yersinia Research Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Abstract Top
From AD 1347 to AD 1353, the Black Death killed tens of millions of
people in Europe, leaving misery and devastation in its wake, with
successive epidemics ravaging the continent until the 18th century.
The etiology of this disease has remained highly controversial,
ranging from claims based on genetics and the historical descriptions
of symptoms that it was caused by Yersinia pestis to conclusions that
it must have been caused by other pathogens. It has also been disputed
whether plague had the same etiology in northern and southern Europe.
Here we identified DNA and protein signatures specific for Y. pestis
in human skeletons from mass graves in northern, central and southern
Europe that were associated archaeologically with the Black Death and
subsequent resurgences. We confirm that Y. pestis caused the Black
Death and later epidemics on the entire European continent over the
course of four centuries. Furthermore, on the basis of 17 single
nucleotide polymorphisms plus the absence of a deletion in glpD gene,
our aDNA results identified two previously unknown but related clades
of Y. pestis associated with distinct medieval mass graves. These
findings suggest that plague was imported to Europe on two or more
occasions, each following a distinct route. These two clades are
ancestral to modern isolates of Y. pestis biovars Orientalis and
Medievalis. Our results clarify the etiology of the Black Death and
provide a paradigm for a detailed historical reconstruction of the
infection routes followed by this disease.
Author Summary Top
Several historical epidemic waves of plague have been attributed to
Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of modern plague. The most famous
of these was the second pandemic which was active in Europe from AD
1347 until 1750, and began with the ‘Black Death’. The most
informative method to establish the etiological nature of these
ancient infections should be the analysis of ancient DNA, but the
results of this method have been controversial. Here, by combining
ancient DNA analyses and protein-specific detection, we demonstrate
unambiguously that Y. pestis caused the Black Death. Furthermore, we
show that at least two variants of Y. pestis spread over Europe during
the second pandemic. The analysis of up to 20 diagnostic markers
reveals that the two variants evolved near the time that phylogenetic
branches 1 and 2 separated and may no longer exist. Our results thus
resolve a long-standing debate about the etiology of the Black Death
and provide key information about the evolution of the plague bacillus
and the spread of the disease during the Middle Ages.
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1001134
SolomonW
Do we finally have an answer? Could there not be several different diseases
that were called Black Death, we are talking of an era before modern
medicine.
Jack Linthicum
> >http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.p...
>
> Do we finally have an answer? Could there not be several different diseases
> that were called Black Death, we are talking of an era before modern
> medicine.
Well, this is an era of modern medicine and these people seem to have
used the science of today and the relics of the past to synthesize an
answer. Someone else may take the same data and come up with a
different answer. I would say to discovery of two previously unknown
variants, that had evolved the way modern diseases do, were evidence
of a sound finding.
Eric Stevens
<Solo...@nospamLamp.com.au> wrote:
>> http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1001134
>
>Do we finally have an answer? Could there not be several different diseases
>that were called Black Death, we are talking of an era before modern
>medicine.
That the Black Death may have been two or more distinct diseases,
possibly even acting in unison, has been recognised for some time.
That were two distinct forms of Yersinia pestis at the time has not
been generally considered.
What this work will do is largely put to an end the suggestions that
the Black Death was something other than 'Yersinia pestis'.
Eric Stevens
SolomonW
> What this work will do is largely put to an end the suggestions that
> the Black Death was something other than 'Yersinia pestis'.
Actually all this work shows is that 'Yersinia pestis' was there.
Eric Stevens
That 'Yersinia pestis' was there is an idea which has not been
supported by all parties.
Eric Stevens
Paul J Gans
But is proven by this paper. You'll have to give it up, Eric.
Y. pestis caused the Black Death.
--
--- Paul J. Gans
roj
news:i8ssnd$1lk$2...@reader1.panix.com...
> In soc.history.medieval Eric Stevens <eric.s...@sum.co.nz> wrote:
>>On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:44:13 +1100, SolomonW
>><Solo...@nospamLamp.com.au> wrote:
>
>>>On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:59:07 +1300, Eric Stevens wrote:
>>>
>>>> What this work will do is largely put to an end the suggestions that
>>>> the Black Death was something other than 'Yersinia pestis'.
>>>
> Y. pestis caused the Black Death.
>
The biggest headache with the original Black Death had been it's speed
of travel, far faster than was thought possible for a rat/flea combination. I
f we now have variants from that period, it is posssible that one of them
was much more contagious than today's ?
roj
Peter Jason
"roj" <No-...@no-where.com> wrote in message
news:banso.56613$vL5....@newsfe13.ams2...
Perhaps birds were vectors also.
Jack Linthicum
> "roj" <No-...@no-where.com> wrote in message
>
> news:banso.56613$vL5....@newsfe13.ams2...
>
>
>
> > "Paul J Gans" <gan...@panix.com> wrote in message
> >news:i8ssnd$1lk$2...@reader1.panix.com...
> >> In soc.history.medieval Eric Stevens
> >>>On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:44:13 +1100, SolomonW
> >>><Solom...@nospamLamp.com.au> wrote:
>
> >>>>On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:59:07 +1300, Eric Stevens wrote:
>
> >>>>> What this work will do is largely put to an end the
> >>>>> suggestions that
> >>>>> the Black Death was something other than 'Yersinia
> >>>>> pestis'.
>
> > ....snip
> >> Y. pestis caused the Black Death.
> >> --- Paul J. Gans
>
> > The biggest headache with the original Black Death had
> > been it's speed
> > of travel, far faster than was thought possible for a
> > rat/flea combination. I
> > f we now have variants from that period, it is posssible
> > that one of them
> > was much more contagious than today's ?
> > roj
>
> Perhaps birds were vectors also.
Several sites suggest bird flu as a companion disease as many birds
died too in certain circumstances.
http://www.angelfire.com/mac/egmatthews/worldinfo/topics/blackdeath.html
http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/theworld/black02.htm
John Briggs
Yes, obviously. My suggestion is that the disese presented
simultaneously in both pneumonic and bubonic forms.
--
John Briggs
Eric Stevens
Paul, you haven't been following the thread. In Message-ID:
<8il1b6t5p23ssgvd6...@4ax.com> posted on Sat, 09 Oct
2010 20:59:13 UTC I wrote:
"That the Black Death may have been two or more distinct
diseases, possibly even acting in unison, has been recognised
for some time. That were two distinct forms of Yersinia pestis at
the time has not been generally considered.
What this work will do is largely put to an end the suggestions
that the Black Death was something other than 'Yersinia pestis'."
Eric Stevens
Eric Stevens
<gan...@panix.com> wrote:
Paul, you will lose some toes if you are not careful. Look back up
_this_ thread and you will see I have already written:
"What this work will do is largely put to an end the suggestions
that the Black Death was something other than 'Yersinia pestis'."
In fact, that very text, with the correct attribution, is at the head
of the article to which you replied.
Eric Stevens
SolomonW
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1506762.htm
Here is another report of birds, the conclusion is that
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scientists are still unsure why the plague originates in Central Asia. It
has spread throughout the world, including recently to east Africa, and
this is due at least partly to birds.
"Many, many bird species are spreading bacteria from one place to another,
from one rodent to another, by carrying fleas," Stenseth says.
"That birds spread the bacteria is not in question but how important that
is in the big picture is not yet clear."
Unlike the bird flu virus, which infects and kills domestic birds,
plague-carrying fleas do not harm the birds that carry them.
Paul J Gans
>http://www.angelfire.com/mac/egmatthews/worldinfo/topics/blackdeath.html
>http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/theworld/black02.htm
Would some of you guys (a) stop crossposting, and (b) go read
the paper. This is addressed in the paper. The short of it
is that it used to be thought that the fleas needed several
days to become infectious. It now turns out that they are
infectuous almost immediately.
Paul J Gans
I did NOT crosspost this thread to sci.arch, mainly to avoid this.
You folks will NOT read the paper, but you are happy to invent new
ideas.
There were NOT two distinct forms of Y. pestis. Natural populations
vary genetically.
If one reads the paper one finds that the entire genome was not
sequenced. What is typically done is to check a number of sites
in the genome that are considered significant. Different burial
sites often had slightly different versions of Y. pestis. This
is to be expected. As the virus goes through many many generations,
it mutates. That does not change the disease nor does it negate
the fact that it was Y. pestis in each case. Note that the
authors call it Y. pestis in every case.
Stop looking for nits to pick. It is done. Unlike most historical
events that in fact cannot be replicated or analyzed today, this
can be analysed today. It has been done. Unless you are a molecular
biologist interested in the genetic details, this is the end of the
story.
Eric Stevens
<gan...@panix.com> wrote:
I have read the paper and I'm still happy to invent new ideas.
>
>There were NOT two distinct forms of Y. pestis. Natural populations
>vary genetically.
According to the paper they ideintified _three_ distinct forms of Y.
pestis, namely biovars Antiqua, Mediavlais and Orientalis. See page 1,
column 2, of the paper. Of course they vary genetically. That is what
theb paper says.
>
>If one reads the paper one finds that the entire genome was not
>sequenced. What is typically done is to check a number of sites
>in the genome that are considered significant. Different burial
>sites often had slightly different versions of Y. pestis. This
>is to be expected. As the virus goes through many many generations,
>it mutates. That does not change the disease nor does it negate
>the fact that it was Y. pestis in each case. Note that the
>authors call it Y. pestis in every case.
Mutations don't change the disease? Darwin will be rottating in his
grave.
>
>Stop looking for nits to pick. It is done. Unlike most historical
>events that in fact cannot be replicated or analyzed today, this
>can be analysed today. It has been done. Unless you are a molecular
>biologist interested in the genetic details, this is the end of the
>story.
How many teeth etc did they look at? Is that enough to bring the story
to an end?
Eric Stevens
Jack Linthicum
I have a nice little book on plagues that says the ground burrowing
animals originated the plague, the Mongol horsemen carried it and the
rats picked up the fleas. What tends to support the ground burrowing
animals theory is an outbreak in Southern California in 1924-5 of rat-
borne plague, the last outbreak from rats. Since then the several
outbreaks have all involved ground and rock squirrels, average about
18 a year.
David Friedman
<1f72b6f1-d8e2-4e59...@o34g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
Jack Linthicum <jackli...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> I have a nice little book on plagues that says the ground burrowing
> animals originated the plague, the Mongol horsemen carried it and the
> rats picked up the fleas.
_Plagues and Peoples_? Interesting book, but pretty old, so more may be
known now.
--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World_
Jack Linthicum
wrote:
> In article
> <1f72b6f1-d8e2-4e59-a062-9e56a514f...@o34g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
> Jack Linthicum <jacklinthi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > I have a nice little book on plagues that says the ground burrowing
> > animals originated the plague, the Mongol horsemen carried it and the
> > rats picked up the fleas.
>
> _Plagues and Peoples_? Interesting book, but pretty old, so more may be
> known now.
>
> Author of _Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World_
But any more truthful?