Skeletons from the 18th century reveal typhus epidemic from Spain
Between 1710 and 1712, while Louis XIV was waging a war with the north of Europe for the Spanish succession, the town of Douai in northern France was besieged on veral occasions. In 1981, during building construction work, mass graves were discovered in the town. The skeletons brought to light were subjected to paleomicrobiology(1) studies directed by Didier Raoult of the Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieus et Tropicales Emergentes (CNRS/Université de la Méditerranée/IRD), in collaboration with rearchers from the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Bioculturelle de Marille (CNRS/Université de la Méditerranée/EFS).
The manner in which the skeletons found in the mass graves were laid out and the abnce of any bodily injuries caud by weapons point to an epidemic, possibly more lethal than the battles that took place during the siege of Douai in the early 18thiost century. Molecular biology analys enabled the team to identify the pathogenic agent responsible for the epidemic. Using DNA extracted from dental pulp(2), the scientists identified the DNA of the come back
bacteria responsible for trench fever (Bartonella quintana) and mostly typhus(Rickettsia prowazekii). This is the earliest demonstration of the prence in Europe of the typhus agent, an infectious dia transmitted by lice.
ddo>accumulate见解的意思
The same team of scientists had already revealed the prence of the pathogenic agents a century later in Napoleonic armies. The genotyping ofbasal Rickettsia prowazekiidirtydianashows that it is the same bacterium that later became rife in Spain, thus supporting the hypothesis that typhus was imported into Europe by Spanish conquistadors at the start of the 18th century.
Paleomicrobiology is a branch of microbiology that specializes in the microbiological diagnosis of ancient infectious dias by highlighting environmental or pathogenic microorganisms in human samples or former environments.
Dental pulp is the connective tissue located inside teeth and which contains vesls and nerves.
Summary:spalding
bug是什么意思By studying the dental pulp of skeletons buried in Douai (northern France), rearchers have identified the pathogenic agents responsible for trench fever and typhus. This work reveals for the first time the prence of typhus in Europe at the start of the 18th century and lends weight to the hypothesis that this dia could have been imported into Europe by Spanish conquistadors returning from the Americas.
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