Yersinia Pestis Bacteria seen under electron microscope
Connect Image/Arami
The ancient ancestors of the pathogens that later caused Black Death and other major pandemics have been identified in Russian Bronze Age domestic sheep, making them one of the oldest pathogens ever discovered in animals.
That DNA is closely matched with the DNA of plague bacteria found in the skeleton of European humans of the same era, providing the first evidence that disease can spread between humans and their own livestock before the pathogen evolves, before jumping from rodents to people via fleas.
Source: www.newscientist.com
