Rats might not be entirely to blame.
A louse infected with plague Human body lice may be just as responsible for spreading the plague as rats and fleas, a new study suggests. The findings challenge widespread views of how the Black Death wreaked havoc in the Middle Ages, say scientists. And are pretty gross, to be honest. The bubonic plague pandemic – one of the most deadly in history – spread across Britain and Europe from 1346 to 1353, wiping out as many as 50 million people, up to half the continent’s population.
pestis, but are widely considered to be too inefficient at spreading it to contribute substantially to outbreaks. ‘However, the few studies that have addressed lice transmission efficiency have disagreed considerably.’ The Great Plague of London, c1779, painted by William Blake Private Collection Dr Bland and his team conducted a series of lab experiments in which body lice fed on blood samples containing Y. pestis.
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