One Health Approaches to Trace Mycobacterium leprae’s Zoonotic Potential Through Time

Abstract

Hansen’s disease (leprosy), mainly caused by infection with Mycobacterium leprae, has accompanied humanity for thousands of years. Although currently rare in Europe, there are over 200,000 new infections annually in South East Asia, Africa, and South America. Over the years many disciplines – palaeopathology, ancient DNA and other ancient biomolecules, and history – have contributed to a better understanding of leprosy’s past, in particular its history in medieval Europe. We discuss their contributions and potential, especially in relation to the role of inter-species transmission, an unexplored phenomenon in the disease’s history. Here, we explore the potential of interdisciplinary approaches that understand disease as a biosocial phenomenon, which is a product of both infection with M. leprae and social behaviours that facilitate transmission and spread. Genetic evidence of M. leprae isolated from archaeological remains combined with systematic zooarchaeological and historical analysis would not only identify when and in what direction transmission occurred, but also key social behaviours and motivations that brought species together. In our opinion, this combination is crucial to understand the disease’s zoonotic past and current potential.

Ancient pathogens provide a window into health and well-being

“…Studies have also revealed significant diversity of strains through time and coupled with studies of modern strains in both humans and animals, the clear interchange of these pathogens from humans to other species and back again (e.g., refs. 107 and 109 – 111 ). These mycobacteria are also among the first where we can see evidence for genetic susceptibility of particular subsets of ancient populations.…”

Using paleopathology to provide a deep-time perspective that improves our understanding of one health challenges: Exploring urbanization

“…One Health has been defined by the World Health Organisation as an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems (WHO, 2022). Past research into deep-time perspectives on One Health has sometimes focused on specific infectious diseases, such as brucellosis or leprosy (Bendrey et al, 2020;Urban et al, 2021), while others have attempted a broad theoretical overview of how zoonoses and environment might have interacted from a One Health perspective in past era (Kim and Agarwal, 2023;Rayfield et al, 2023). The study of health and disease in past populations is termed paleopathology (Gauer, 2022).…”

Uncovering the Holocene roots of contemporary disease-scapes: bringing archaeology into One Health

“…Archaeologists can help address this problem by documenting the deeper history of humans in shaping diseases. However, archaeological methods, tools and data have not fully been leveraged in One Health approaches, with a few notable exceptions such as the One Health Archaeology Research Group at the University of Edinburgh and a handful of initiatives and researchers elsewhere [7][8][9][10][11].…”