The Black Death: The Mystery of Its Origin Solved Six Centuries After Destroying Europe, Thanks to DNA

This is a new discovery that may seem unusual, but it reveals where the plague that struck the world in the Middle Ages began: the black plague.

The mystery of six centuries solved by a study by DNA analysis. In fact, the research was published Natural This Wednesday, June 15, the bacterium proves to be from present-day Kyrgyzstan.

In fact, it was only from the DNA analysis of a tooth that this powerful discovery could be seen in daylight.

A mystery solved and even an accurate dating

It all started well after the Black Death epidemic. In 1892 archaeologists discovered tombs dating back to 1338 and 1339 in present-day Kyrgyzstan. Although the last inscription of these is clear, numerous pits are due to an “insect”.

Apparently, the word can be translated as a disease caused by an infection.

But DNA analysis of seven individuals excavated from these two graves gave the appearance of disease.

In the teeth of three people, there was a bacterium called Yersinia pestis that caused black death.

Also in the tombs is the date of 1338, which attests to the origin of the Black Death. The new scientist.

Strain of ancestors

DNA sequencing shows that bacillus was found to cause black death in the teeth of dead people in Central Asia.

This bacterium is responsible for this mass and simultaneous death, as many graves were discovered on the same date and in the same place.

This population was wiped out eight years before the epidemic. In addition, the genome of this Yersinia pestis bacterium found on the site shows that it is an ancestral mutation, the bacterium later mutated.

Marmots of this region in the origin of the exchange

Since plague is not essentially a human disease, researchers firmly believe that this bacterium, which mainly develops in rodents, was spread by marmots, and that species was very common at the time.

Its arrival in the Mediterranean is a mystery

Eight years before the epidemic that hit Europe, Asia and Africa, black death has now been born in Kyrgyzstan.

We know that Blake came through the Mediterranean. Researchers also say that cats need to be included in any precautionary measures against the virus.