A 5,000-year-old hunter-gatherer already plagued by Yersinia pestis

Susat, Julian; Lübke, Harald; Immel, Alexander; Brinker, Ute; Macāne, Aija; Meadows, John; Steer, Britta; Tholey, Andreas; Zagorska, Ilga; Gerhards, Guntis; Schmölcke, Ulrich; Kalniņš, Mārcis; Franke, André; Pētersone-Gordina, Elīna; Teßman, Barbara; Tõrv, Mari; Schreiber, Stefan; Andreé, Christian; Bērziņš, Valdis; Nebel, Almut; Krause‐Kyora, Ben

doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109278

Cited by 59 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…2 and 3 ). It is tempting to assume that this might indicate a spill-over to humans from beavers hunted for and consumed as food, as recently speculated for Yersinia species 45 . Indeed, beavers have been hunted close to extinction, for fur as well as for meat that was allowed to be consumed during lent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Staphylococcus aureus isolates from Eurasian Beavers (Castor fiber) carry a novel phage-borne bicomponent leukocidin related to the Panton-Valentine leukocidin

Monecke

Feßler

Burgold-Voigt

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Staphylococcus aureus can be a harmless coloniser, but it can also cause severe infections in humans, livestock and wildlife. Regarding the latter, only few studies have been performed and knowledge on virulence factors is insufficient. The aim of the present study was to study S. aureus isolates from deceased wild beavers (Castor fiber). Seventeen isolates from eleven beavers, found in Germany and Austria, were investigated. Antimicrobial and biocide susceptibility tests were performed. Isolates were characterised using S. aureus-specific DNA microarrays, spa typing and whole-genome sequencing. From two isolates, prophages were induced by mitomycin C and studied by transmission electron microscopy. Four isolates belonged to clonal complex (CC) 8, CC12, and CC398. Twelve isolates belonged to CC1956 and one isolate was CC49. The CC49 and CC1956 isolates carried distinct lukF/S genes related to the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) from human isolates of S. aureus. These genes were located on related, but not identical, Siphovirus prophages. The beavers, from which those isolates originated, suffered from abscesses, purulent organ lesions and necrotising pneumonia, i.e., clinical manifestations resembling symptoms of severe PVL-associated disease in humans. It might thus be assumed that the “Beaver Leukocidin (BVL, lukF/S-BV)”-positive strains are beaver-specific pathogens, and further studies on their clinical role as well as on a possible transmissibility to other species, including humans, are warranted.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Staphylococcus aureus isolates from Eurasian Beavers (Castor fiber) carry a novel phage-borne bicomponent leukocidin related to the Panton-Valentine leukocidin

Monecke

Feßler

Burgold-Voigt

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria, and recent genetic sequencing of human remains from western Eurasia has identified Y. pestis genomes at multiple sites. The earliest are around 5 ka in Sweden and Latvia, with third millennium BC examples from areas including Estonia, Croatia, Poland, and Germany (Rasmussen et al, 2015;Valtueña et al, 2017;Spyrou et al, 2018;Rascovan et al, 2019;Susat et al, 2021). It has been suggested that the Neolithic strains were less of a health risk than the Bronze Age strains (Spyrou et al, 2018).…”

Section: A Plague Epidemic?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The 4.2 ka Event and the End of the Maltese “Temple Period”

et al. 2022

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The small size and relatively challenging environmental conditions of the semi-isolated Maltese archipelago mean that the area offers an important case study of societal change and human-environment interactions. Following an initial phase of Neolithic settlement, the “Temple Period” in Malta began ∼5.8 thousand years ago (ka), and came to a seemingly abrupt end ∼4.3 ka, and was followed by Bronze Age societies with radically different material culture. Various ideas concerning the reasons for the end of the Temple Period have been expressed. These range from climate change, to invasion, to social conflict resulting from the development of a powerful “priesthood.” Here, we explore the idea that the end of the Temple Period relates to the 4.2 ka event. The 4.2 ka event has been linked with several examples of significant societal change around the Mediterranean, such as the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, yet its character and relevance have been debated. The Maltese example offers a fascinating case study for understanding issues such as chronological uncertainty, disentangling cause and effect when several different processes are involved, and the role of abrupt environmental change in impacting human societies. Ultimately, it is suggested that the 4.2 ka event may have played a role in the end of the Temple Period, but that other factors seemingly played a large, and possibly predominant, role. As well as our chronological modelling indicating the decline of Temple Period society in the centuries before the 4.2 ka event, we highlight the possible significance of other factors such as a plague epidemic.

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“…One such example is the unexpected discovery of early forms of Yersinia pestis in only 7 out of 101 Bronze Age individuals, with the disease being argued as “endemic” despite geographic sparsity ( 11 ). However, this has since been repeatedly verified and expanded, with an increasing number of genomes recovered from the same and new regions ( 16 – 20 ).…”

Section: Sampling Strategies In An Ancient Metagenomic Studymentioning

confidence: 96%