Black Death Plague Attributable to Gerbils and Not Rats, Study Claims
Gerbils and not rats were the culprits behind the Black Death, a plague epidemic that last nearly 400 years.
A new study which forces a rethink of history, argues that Gerbils arriving from Asia into Europe via the Silk Road caused mid-14th century plague outbreaks killing millions of people in Asia and Europe. The study's researchers have argued that climatic conditions during plague outbreaks were not suitable for rats but were ideal for gerbils to thrive. Plague outbreaks often happened after wet springs followed by warm summers in Asia, suitable for gerbils, BBC reports. Until recently, rats were blamed for causing Black Death.
Researchers arrived at their conclusions after analysing 15 tree-ring records which showed climatic conditions preceding outbreaks. The analysis also helped explain why the disease struck in waves and remained dormant for long years, The Washington Post reported.
The study team from University of Oslo is also analysing DNA from skeletons of people who died from the disease during the outbreaks.
Researchers found that Gerbils are highly resistant to plague bacteria.
"Sometimes a single bacterium kills a mouse. Common rats can tolerate injection of 10,000 bacteria. Gerbils can tolerate 100 billion bacteria. That is ten million times as many bacteria," says Pernille Nilsson one of the researchers, in a news release. More findings are expected from the research in the future.
