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‘Humans more likely than rats to have caused rapid spread of Black Death’

Scientists have come up with a new theory of how the plague spread across Europe in the 14th-19th centuries.

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Human parasites were more likely to blame for plague during the Black Death, scientists say (PA)

Humans – and not rats – could have been the cause for the spread of plague during the Black Death, a new study suggests.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in human history. It devastated European populations from 1346 to 1353 and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people.

It has long been thought that the plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which lasted in Europe until the early 19th century, was spread by rats.

But now scientists from the University of Oslo and the University of Ferrara believe human “ectoparasites”, such as body lice and human fleas, might be more likely to have caused the epidemic.

Rats eradication
Humans – not rats- have been linked to the spread of plague during the Black Death, researchers said (PA)

They created models of how a disease could be spread by rats, airborne transmission, and fleas and lice on humans and clothes.

They found that, in seven of the cases, there was a closer resemblance between the human model and the outbreak when compared with the other two alternatives.

In the paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the researchers said: “While it is commonly assumed that rats and their fleas spread plague during the Second Pandemic, there is little historical and archaeological support for such a claim.

“Here, we show that human ectoparasites, like body lice and human fleas, might be more likely than rats to have caused the rapidly developing epidemics in pre-Industrial Europe.”

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