2018/01/16 by Katharine R. Dean, Fabienne Krauer, Lars Walløe +4 · 3 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · #Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research #Zoonotic diseases and public health #Bacillus and Francisella bacterial research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.1715640115
openalex publication_date 2018/01/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/12
Significance Plague is infamous as the cause of the Black Death (1347–1353) and later Second Pandemic (14th to 19th centuries CE), when devastating epidemics occurred throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Despite the historical significance of the disease, the mechanisms underlying the spread of plague in Europe are poorly understood. 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. Such an alternative transmission route explains many of the notable epidemiological differences between historical and modern plague epidemics.