So, I had a bunch of tabs open, and this GGG ping on deck, and when I noticed I'd not sent it, there were already 69 replies. Hu hu hu hu, I said 69.
Posted on 01/21/2023 7:16:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv
One of the most commonly recited facts about plague in Europe was that it was spread by rats. In some parts of the world, the bacterium that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, maintains a long-term presence in wild rodents and their fleas. This is called an animal "reservoir".
While plague begins in rodents, it sometimes spills over to humans. Europe may have once hosted animal reservoirs that sparked plague pandemics. But plague could have also been repeatedly reintroduced from Asia. Which of these scenarios was present remains a topic of scientific controversy.
Our recent research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has shown that environmental conditions in Europe would have prevented plague from surviving in persistent, long-term animal reservoirs. How, then, did plague persevere in Europe for so long?
Our study offers two possibilities. One, the plague was being reintroduced from Asian reservoirs. Second, there could have been short- or medium-term temporary reservoirs in Europe. In addition, the two scenarios might have been mutually supportive.
However, the rapid spread of the Black Death and subsequent outbreaks of the next few centuries also suggest slow-moving rats may not have played the critical role in transmitting the disease that is often portrayed.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
If the Muslims came from Arabia and Africa, is there the possibility?
I’m openly admitting I have no idea either way, and have never studied enough even to make an educated guess.
...which is why (as they say on Jeopardy) I phrased my response in the form of a question.
Rodent poinsons aen’t always the greatest idea - the rats crawl up in some wall and die there leaving a big stink that can’t be got at.
My suspicion is that while the fleas road ship rats to the port cities, once ashore the fleas went to anything that would carry them. Livestock, pack animals humans, clothing, bedding and the like. Then as humans and stock moved at a rate beyond rats the fleas thus carried went from village to village with every traveler.
Flea and similar vermin were everywhere and while rats could be killed by ratters, fleas were just a part of life.
I thought it was infected fleas entering sailing vessels in Black Sea ports and exiting the vessels in Mediterranian and Altlantic ports.
I'm too lazy this morning to look it up -- was that the period when European trade with Asia ramped up?
We have been "plagued" lately by Asian Stiltgrass seeds that get into packing materials. Many foreign plants meet no resistance in a new environment and soon take over entire fields and forests. The Stiltgrass requires very expensive weedicides meant for golf courses, etc., to be eliminated from residential lawns—the usual weedicides won't cut it. Stiltgrass has spread all over our townhome neighborhood and forest park because even if one owner gets rid of it, the lawns next door and the forest trail will spread it back. Hoping it doesn't become a widespread native-plant killer like kudzu did.
Some combination of what you suggest.
They die in 4 days without a blood meal. They also don’t reproduce well on just human blood. Needs to be other animals, preferably cats.
So hiding in blankets enroute is not going to work. They’ll die. But livestock, ya that will work to keep them alive, but breeding will slow.
It has always been a tricky problem since those guys showed the speed of plague spread exceeded rat travel speed.
That top picture is a chipmunk
On the nosey!
So, I had a bunch of tabs open, and this GGG ping on deck, and when I noticed I'd not sent it, there were already 69 replies. Hu hu hu hu, I said 69.
That is exactly the conclusion the authors reached in a book I read about 10 years ago: Return of the Black Death by Susan Scott & Christopher Duncan.
Read the source document. This isn’t based on testing performed on live rats, this is all based on computer modeling (as is MMGW). So garbage in, garbage out. They have absolutely ZERO mechanism to validate their conclusions, which therefore are no more valid than their original hypotheses.
And fleas live on far more animals than rats.
It’s because their feet were a lot smaller than ours so when they stayed 6 feet apart, they were really only about 3-4 feet apart...
Confused me.
Not spread by rats, but spread by rats.
Did I miss something?
Saw a British program a while back that produced evidence that body lice, which there was plenty of back then, was a major reason the plague spread so quickly.
Chipmunk:
California Ground Squirrel:
Wyoming Ground Squirrel:
The two different styles of death (both back in thec1350 and 1918-1919 epidemics ) are “strangely” with the rapid deaths of Covid 19 and the slower flu-and-congestive failures and treatments.
It came out from a lab in Wuhan? Dr. Fauci’s ancestors fund it... 🤓
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