Gerbils, Not Rats, May Have Carried the Black Death from Asia to Europe

In 1347 AD, the Black Death swept across Europe, sickening and then killing 40 to 60 percent of the population within just a few short years. Now, scientists have found that the rat may not have been the plague carrier for this disease. Instead, we might have to place the blame on the gerbil.

In order to learn a bit more about this disease, the researchers searched for climate fluctuations in high-resolution palaeoclimatic records that are associated with current-day plague outbreaks in major host species, such as the great gerbil Rhombomy opimus. The scientists found that the fluctuations statistically related with reintroductions of the plague into medieval Europe. This suggests repeated climate-drive re-introductions of the bacterium, Yersinia pestis, which is the plague bacterium, via the Silk Road system into European harbors from wildlife rodent reservoirs in Asian plague foci.

In fact, the new research hints that instead of a single source of the devastating pandemic that then spread outward, this was a continuous, climate-driven source of plague. In addition, the new findings challenge the long-standing belief that the plague must have had a permanent wildlife reservoir in Europe, such as the urban black rat. Instead, scientists believe new strains of the disease may have been frequently important from Asia; in other words, the rat may not have been such a large part of the Black Death as once thought.

The findings reveal a bit more about the disease that devastated Europe. Not only that, but it shows that animals, such as the gerbil, may have contributed to this plague and that the black rat may not have had such a large role to play.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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