The plague bacteria survived centuries in Europe study – El Comercio (Ecuador)

bacteria survived the plague Europe for centuries and therefore outbreaks disease they came not always imported from other areas as previously thought, according to a study published scientific Germans in the magazine specialized PLoS ONE.

The scientists analyzed skeletons of the fourteenth to seventeenth in Munich and Brandenburg. ” We found the teeth of the skeletons genetic information of the bacteria that causes plague, analyzed the fingerprint molecular and we discover that it is essentially identical, “says Holger Scholz , the Institute Microbiology Army in Munich.

Therefore, the bacteria Yersinia pestis have survived in Europe for centuries. Together with experts from the University of Munich and State Collection of Anthropology and Paleanatomía of the Bavarian capital, Scholz analyzed 30 skeletons. In six cases the remains were used to analyze the plague bacteria.

With this, the research covered a period from the mid-fourteenth century until well into the seventeenth. At the same time, the results were compared with genes and isolated from other skeletons in Europe and the scientists found a footprint genetic almost identical. It is unknown what could be the host that allowed the survival of the bacteria .

“They may have been lice , but we can not prove,” said molecular biologist. The expert on plague and palaeogeneticist Johannes Krause University of Tuebingen , said that the results of their colleagues are very interesting because they show that there was a line Europe disease that today is extinct.

“We found the same pattern in a similar study and came to the conclusion that Europe have a strain own Black Death that was developed and existed in Europe in later centuries, “Krause said. Death or Black Plague was the worst epidemic of disease that swept the old continent for several years from 1347.

Scientists study for years why the plague remained at Europe for centuries and produced pandemics again and again.

One theory is that it was reintroduced through trade routes with Central Asia, while another estimated that the bacteria found refuge somewhere in the continent and thereby unleash again infections . The two options are therefore possible.

In the world there are still cases of the disease, especially in Africa , which is underlined in a study of the German Army. “Our soldiers are in areas where they might be faced with the plague. That’s why we are interested in the subject,” said Scholz.