As Napoleon advanced into Russia in 1812, he commanded the largest army ever assembled in Europe. However, his return was marked not by gunfire, but by the chilling impact of microscopic foes.
Scientists examining DNA from the teeth of soldiers who perished during the retreat from Moscow have uncovered two diseases that devastated the Tsar’s grand army.
Historically, “typhus has been regarded as the most widespread illness in the military,” stated Nicolas Raskovan, director of the microbial paleogenomics department at the Pasteur Institute and lead author of the research. The findings were published in “Current Biology”.
Employing a method known as shotgun sequencing, Raskovan and his team investigated ancient DNA from the dental remains of 13 soldiers discovered near Vilnius, Lithuania, and identified two “previously undocumented pathogens.”
“We have confirmed the presence of Salmonella enterica, which is part of the Paratyphoid C strain,” he explained to NBC News, noting this bacteria is responsible for paratyphoid fever, along with Borrelia ricerentis, the agent of relapsing fever.
These diseases would likely have thrived in environments where “sanitation and hygiene were severely lacking,” he added.
The results align with historical accounts detailing symptoms like fever and diarrhea that plagued Napoleon’s troops, according to the study.
A “reasonable scenario” for the fatalities might include “extreme fatigue, cold weather, and multiple illnesses, such as paratyphoid fever or louse-borne relapsing fever,” the researchers noted.
“Although not necessarily deadly, louse-borne relapsing fever can be profoundly debilitating for someone already worn down,” they added.
In contrast to a 2006 study that discovered traces of bacteria causing typhus and trench fever in four out of 35 individuals, this research found no evidence of those illnesses.
However, Raskovan noted that while early research was constrained by the technology at the time, both old and new findings paint a clearer picture of the factors that led to the downfall of Napoleon’s forces.
“The discovery of four different pathogens in such a significant number of individuals strongly indicates that a variety of infections were widespread,” he remarked.
Approximately 300,000 lives were lost before Napoleon’s army retreated. It appears even an emperor cannot conquer the realm of microorganisms.
Source: www.nbcnews.com
