The oldest known plague victim found in Latvia
Scientists have discovered the oldest plague strain. It is preserved in the remains of a young hunter-gatherer who lived 5,000 years ago, Cell reports.
Genetic analysis showed that this strain is very similar to the one that caused the Black Death epidemic in Europe four millennia later. But it lacks some key genes, in particular those that help it spread.
The ancient plague developed slowly and was poorly transmitted from person to person, the researchers concluded.
“It lacked the genes that ensured transmission through a flea bite,” – says the text of the scientific work.
For several millennia, the plague has learned to pass from one biological species to another, and this became the reason for its rapid and widespread spread in the Middle Ages.
Research has shown that a hunter-gatherer infected with the plague passed away at the age of 20. He lived in the territory of modern Latvia. The remains of another man, a teenage girl and a newborn were found next to his body, but none of them were infected.
Scientists noted that a large number of Y. pestis bacteria were preserved in his body. It can be assumed that the victim lived with the plague for a long time. Probably, the disease has even passed into a chronic stage.
According to the researchers, the hunter suffered from septic plague. Other people could become infected with it only through direct contact with the patient's blood, and he himself became infected, probably after being bitten by a sick rodent.
Studies like this show how zoonotic pathogens like Ebola, swine flu and (most likely) the new coronavirus change over time. During the Stone Age, plague did not cause massive outbreaks. Y. pestis appeared here and there in groups of hunter-gatherers, farmers and nomads throughout Eurasia, but never caused massive pandemics like the Black Death. In the Middle Ages, people began to live in cities, in crowded and unsanitary conditions – it is possible that this influenced the evolution of the plague, making it more infectious.
Previously, scientists found out where the plague could have come to Europe. Its origins were found in the Volga region.
