Origins Of The Black Death Traced Back To China, Gene Sequencing Has Revealed; A Plague That Killed Over a Third of Europe's Population

Medical News Today ^

[SeekAndFind]

Gene sequencing, from which scientists can gather hereditary data of organisms, has revealed that the Black Death, often referred to as The Plague, which reduced the world’s total population by about 100 million, originated from China over 2000 years ago, scientists from several countries wrote in the medical journal Nature Genetics. Genome sequencing has allowed the researchers to reconstruct plague pandemics from the Black Death to the late 1800s.

Black Death and The Plague – the plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. The Black Death is one huge plague event (pandemic) in history.

The Black Death is known as one of the deadliest and widespread pandemics in history. It peaked in Europe between 1348 and 1350 and is thought to have been a bubonic plague outbreak caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium. It reached the Crimea in 1346 and most likely spread via fleas on black rats that travelled on merchant ships. It soon spread through the Mediterranean and Europe. The Black Death is thought have destroyed 30% to 60% of Europe’s population – experts say it took 150 years for Europe to recover its population size. The plague came back several times until the 19th century, when it left Europe for good. Most victims died with two to seven days of becoming infected.

The authors in this new study say the plague evolved around the area of China over 2000 years ago and spread globally several times as deadly pandemics. They compared 17 complete plague genome sequences as well as 933 variable DNA sites on a unique worldwide collection of bacterial strains (plague isolates), allowing them to follow pandemics that took place in history around the world, and to work out the age of different waves of them.

The majority of pandemics were associated with known major historical events, such as the Black Death. As none of the collections of isolates from individual scientific institutions were globally representative, the scientists explained that in order to understand the historical sources of plagues, all the institutions would have to work together.

In order to prevent bioterrorism, access to Yersinia pestis – the bacterium known to be the cause of the plagues – is seriously restricted; therefore, assembling a comprehensive collection of them is impossible. An international team of scientists from the UK, USA, Ireland, Germany, Madagascar, China and France had to collaborate for a decentralized analysis of DNA samples.

Their findings reveal a detailed history of the pandemic spread of a bacterial disease in a way never seen before.

Pandemic infectious diseases have affected humans ever since we set foot on this planet, the authors explain. They have shaped the form of civilizations.

The researchers reveal that the plague bacillus developed near or in China, and via multiple epidemics was transmitted through several different routes, such as into West Asia through the Silk Road and Africa between 1409 and 1433 by Chinese travelers under explorer Zheng He. The Black Death made its way through Asia, Europe and Africa from 1347 to 1351, and probably brought the world’s then 450 million population down to 350 million. Approximately 50% of China’s population perished, while Europe’s went down by a third and Africa by an eighth.

University of Cork communiqué writes:

The last plague pandemic of 1894 spread to India and radiated to many parts of the globe, including the USA, which was infected by a single radiation still persisting today in wild rodents. Detailed analyses within the USA and Madagascar showed that subsequent country-specific evolution could be tracked by unique mutations that have accumulated in their genomes, which should prove useful to trace future disease outbreaks.

Project leader, Professor Mark Achtman, Department of Microbiology, based in the Environmental Research Institute in University College Cork, Ireland, said:

What I felt was so amazing about the results is that we could link the genetic information so accurately to major historical events.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SanchoP]

The plague was carried by fleas.

[BenLurkin]

Escaped from a Ming Dynasty bio-weapons facility

[sauropod]

.

[Redcitizen]

So flower children existed back then

[Redcitizen]

I thought your ancestors were Hobbits? :)

[Salamander]

“A marmot ate my back pack”

If this does not achieve a legendary status similar to “A moose bit my sister”, I’m going to be very disappointed.

[wardaddy]

A jansport ruck

Back in the days of huge Kelty frame packs

A snug ruck with a nice reinforced belt was a climbers pack

Wind howled up on that exposed face all night so we didn’t hear it

I got up and looked at my pack belt and damn critter had eaten the friggn belt

No idea why

I had to rig my regular belt

We went up into Waterton Lakes and on to Calgary before we tackled Mt Assinboine and I got a shoe repair to make another belt

Of course back then I was Marley 24/7 you can imagine ..

43 years ago

Now I drive around glacier or bitteroots with my kids....day hikes...snug best westerns or lodges at night

Roughing it

We use to hike 5-7 nights minimum 15 miles a day...elevation gains of several 1000 feet a day minimum

Not enough nitro in the world for thanks..lol

[SunkenCiv]

I always suspected those Ming dynasts. :^)

[Pelham]

You're right. It is legendary. The best memes happen by serendipity.

“A marmot ate my back pack”

[Pelham]

on another front, snek news:

https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1233312053634289664

[LibWhacker]

I think the biggest thing is diet. The Chinese eat the most obviously revolting no-no crap (bat soup, snakes, etc.) you’d ever want to eat, and then undercook it - things any sensible person wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I am just wondering... what is it about China that makes it susceptible to viral and bacterial outbreaks?

You want the real answer or the PC answer?

[LibWhacker]

Approximately 50% of China’s population perished, while Europe’s went down by a third and Africa by an eighth.

Travel, travel, travel. What we take from this is the importance of restricting travel especially at the first sign of plague. China, where these plagues often originate because of an unwholesome diet, is the largest country and has the greatest number of people moving about relatively freely, thereby exposing the greatest number of other people to their unique regional contagious maladies, is always hit hardest. Europe, at least historically, has less exposure. And Africa least of all, because not even Africans travel in Africa (again I'm talking historically) unless they want to lose their heads. All of which proves Trump is right to want to restrict travel, and democrats are traitors to want to open it up.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: You want the real answer or the PC answer?

The former of course. The latter only avoids the truth so as not to hurt the feelings of the uber sensitive.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

China tends to have a bunch of people that live in very close proximity to each other and the lower classes tend to live with their animals especially pigs. Pigs are close enough to us that we can infect each other. Pig gets sick, human gets sick from the pig who then gets sick from the human next thing you know you have a pandemic. In the west pigs were kept outside, many times out in the woods. The chance that you would catch something was much lower.

The poor tend not to have cats to keep the rodent population down which is the vector for many diseases.

Fuel is in short supply so they tend to cook their food for short periods of time which tends not to kill any bacteria. That is also why the poor live with their animals in the house. It keeps the house warmer and the animals alive during the winter.

There is the fact that the Chinese tend to eat "wild meat". While in the West eating a reptile means that you are down to your last options in China it is actually a symbol of status. This was because of the restrictions on hunting. There is also the idea that eating the parts of certain animals, the rarer the better, will cure what ails you. The guys eat a bunch of crap to improve their bed room antics.

Beef and lamb which are probably the safest foods to eat were rarely eaten by the Chinese as cows and sheep were in short supply.

The Chinese also did not have a tradition of charity. The poor were left to rot. It was their fate to suffer and die so they could be re-born in better circumstances or they were being punished for bad behavior in a past life. In either case you did not want to interfere.

Lack of soap. Soap was not popular in China. They preferred creams to soap to clean the skin. Left your skin nice and soft but did not kill any bacteria.

So you have a bunch of people and animals crowded together, a lack of totally cooked food, lack of rodent control and the eating of foods that are disease reservoirs, a lack of any charity and a lack of cleanliness.

The end results are generally not good.