Article via https://www.technologynetworks.com
A study has found DNA evidence of the plague in 4,000-year-old skeletal remains, the oldest evidence of the plague in Britain to date.
The plague – known during an infamous 14th-century outbreak as the “Black Death” – is one of the deadliest diseases in human history.
It is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and infects many other animal species such as fleas, whose bites are one of the main routes of transmission to humans.
These genes play an important role in infection transmission via fleas, making it unlikely that this plague strain was spread via this vector.