Moscow. 30 June. INTERFAX.RU – A man who died more than 5 thousand years ago in Latvia was infected with the earliest known strain of plague, according to BBC News.
“This is the oldest identified plague victim we have,” said Dr. Ben Krause-Kiora of the University of Kiel in Germany.
Human remains were found with three others in a Neolithic burial in Latvia on the banks of the Salac River, which flows into the Baltic Sea. The researchers sequenced DNA from human bones and teeth and found that one hunter-gatherer – a man in his twenties – had been infected with an ancient strain of plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
“Most likely, he was bitten by a rodent, received a primary infection with Yersinia pestis and died a couple of days – maybe a week later – from septic shock,” added Krause-Kiora.
Researchers speculate that the ancient strain emerged around 7,000 years ago, when agriculture was just beginning to emerge in Central Europe. The bacterium, according to scientists, could be transmitted from animals to people. The “old” form of plague was less contagious. Over time, it adapted to infecting humans and evolved into a form known as the bubonic plague, which was spread by fleas and raged in medieval Europe.
