These days I am attending #AABA2026 in Denver! Super excited to give a talk this afternoon on our recent work! Come to Plaza A at 3.45 PM if you are interested 🧬🦠🎙️
#aDNA #yersiniapestis

Scientists Found Evidence of the Black Plague in a 4,000-Year-Old Sheep Before Yersinia pestis devastated Europe in the Middle Ages, the bacteria ravaged the Bronze Age for nearly two millennia.

Scientists Found Evidence of the #BlackPlague in a 4,000-Year-Old Sheep www.popularmechanics.com/science/heal... Before #Yersiniapestis devastated Europe in the Middle Ages, the bacteria ravaged the Bronze Age for nearly two millennia.

Bronze Age Sheep Bone Yields First Ancient Yersinia pestis Genome in Livestock, Shedding Light on Prehistoric Plague Spread Researchers have identified the bacterium Yersinia pestis in the remains of a domesticated sheep dating back about 4,000 years from the Arkaim site in the Southern Ural Mountains, Russia. This marks the first detection of the pathogen in a non-human host from the Bronze Age, belonging to the Late Neolithic-Bronze Age (LNBA) lineage that infected humans across Eurasia for nearly 2,000 years starting around 5,000 years ago. Unlike the later Black Death strain, this ancient version lacked flea-transmission capabilities, leaving scientists puzzled about its wide geographic spread. The discovery, published in Cell, suggests livestock like sheep played a key role in transmission, possibly alongside an unidentified natural reservoir such as steppe rodents or migratory birds. The sheep's infection closely matches strains found in nearby human remains, indicating shared exposure dynamics tied to pastoralist lifestyles of the Sintashta culture, known for horse riding, bronze tools, and large herds. Lead researcher Taylor Hermes from the University of Arkansas highlighted how analyzing livestock ancient DNA can uncover pathogens affecting both animals and humans. The findings underscore how human-animal interactions and steppe mobility facilitated disease spread in prehistory. Ongoing work, supported by a Max Planck grant, aims to find more evidence in the region. The study also draws modern parallels, warning that disrupting ecosystems through expanding activities can heighten zoonotic disease risks, emphasizing the need to respect natural balances.

Bronze Age Sheep Bone Yields First Ancient Yersinia pestis Genome in Livestock, Shedding Light on Prehistoric Plague Spread

🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Usuarios: It's clickbait ⚠️

#ancientdna #yersiniapestis #bronzeage

View full AI summary:

The Black Death and Volcanoes: Why the Plague Was Never in the Ash Likely represents Sophia/logos (red robe with purple high status) Illumination of P Pythagoria Pi and phi – geometrical shapes set within circle bounded in green representing material world F…

The Black Death was not in volcanic ash.
Volcanic cooling disrupted climate and trade, allowing Yersinia pestis to spread through medieval ports.
historylife78.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/t...

#BlackDeath #PlagueHistory #MedievalHistory #ClimateHistory #YersiniaPestis

The access page to Vianello et al. "Venice’s Hidden Time Capsule: Lazzaretto Vecchio as a 300-Year Molecular Archive of Epidemic Pathogens," Posted Date: 3 December 2025 doi: 10.20944/preprints202512.0373.v1 .

More plague news today. This piece has just been issued in pre-print, meaning it has not yet undergone peer review. For those who might want to watch the process by which scientific work develops in peer review, this might be worth tracking: doi.org/10.20944/pre... #histmed #aDNA #YersiniaPestis

#FYI #PaulBeckwith video lecture and literature review #volcano #VolcanicEruption #famine #agriculture #food #trade #YersiniaPestis #pandemic

Beckwith, Paul Beckwith, on a detective mission to understand the origins of the #BubonicPlague

#climate #pandemics #ClimateDisruption #ExtremeWeather

Since plague historians have the attention of vulcanologists & climate historians/scientists for a hot minute, let me throw out some notes on a #YersiniaPestis study that came out several months ago, but whose historical implications weren't immediately obvious. W/ this graph in mind, here's mini-🧵.

Plague history, Mongol history, and the processes of focalisation leading up to the Black Death: a response to Brack et al. | Medical History | Cambridge Core Plague history, Mongol history, and the processes of focalisation leading up to the Black Death: a response to Brack et al. - Volume 68 Issue 4

Wondering what a "pandemic prodrome" is? My colleague, @fancynahyan.bsky.social & I, summed up 7 years of our research on #YersiniaPestis phylogenetics, the history of the Mongol Empire, & deep dives into Islamicate world history here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #histmed #aDNA #GlobalHealth

🚨 Postdoc Opportunity – Pathogen-Host Interaction 🚨 (2.5y)

🦠 Join our team to uncover the molecular mechanisms of Y. pestis infection in fleas within a @anrs-mie.bsky.social PEPR-funded project!

🔬 Profile: PhD in microbiology

#Postdoc #Microbiology #YersiniaPestis #ResearchJobs

🚨 Postdoc Opportunity – Pathogen-Host Interaction 🚨

🦠 Join our team to uncover the molecular mechanisms of Y. pestis infection in fleas within a PEPR-funded project! (2.5y)

🔬 Profile: PhD in microbiology

#Postdoc #Microbiology #YersiniaPestis #ResearchJobs

EL DORADO COUNTY RESIDENT TESTS POSITIVE FOR PLAGUE El Dorado County health officials have been notified by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) that a South Lake Tahoe resident has tested positive for plague. The individual is currently u...

2025-08-19 "#SouthLakeTahoe resident tested positive for #plague. Individual currently under care of medical professional, recovering at home. Person may have been bitten by infected flea while camping in South Lake Tahoe area." #YersiniaPestis www.eldoradocounty.ca.gov/County-Gover...

Anders als in Europa gibt es in den #USA noch die #Pest, #YersiniaPestis.
Es kommt immer mal wieder zu Ansteckungen, gerade im ländlichen Bereich. Jetzt ist ein Krankheitsfall in #Kalifornien nachgewiesen.

Ungut, bei abnehmender ärtzlichen Versorgung u immer weniger GesundheitsMonitoring.

Pathogen discovered in 4,000-year-old sheep tooth In the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages, sheep were apparently involved in the spread of an early form of the plague.

So intriguing! Researchers have isolated the genetic material of a prehistoric #plague pathogen from a 4,000-year-old sheep tooth, marking the first detection outside human remains & reshaping our view of early disease spread. www.mpg.de/25157082/080... @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social #yersiniapestis

Y. pestis is responsible for the disease plague, which caused the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death, one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history. Y. pestis is a hyperparasite, also known as a metaparasite, is a parasite whose host, is also a parasite.

#plague #yersiniapestis #Yersinia

Arizona patient dies in emergency room from plague The patient was recently treated at an emergency department in Flagstaff and died the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said.

#Arizona patient dies in emergency room from #plague
#Yersiniapestis
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

1 person dies of the plague in northern Arizona One person is dead, according to officials with Northern Arizona Healthcare, on the same day they showed up at Flagstaff Medical Center with symptoms of the plague.

Enough already, 2025. #YersiniaPestis #Arizona #Plague www.fox10phoenix.com/news/1-perso...

Plague (Yersinia Pestis)

Why? B/c the field has moved on. Kolganova makes a passing reference to paleogenetics (aDNA) as being of value in confirming the presence of #YersiniaPestis in archaeological sites. But she cites only 1 study, from a field that has exploded the past decade: ethos.lps.library.cmu.edu/article/id/31/

An addendum: should #YersiniaPestis (the bacterium that causes plague) be retrieved from any of the Neuses mass graves ourside Erfurt, the dating of the site will have huge implications for the phylogenetic tree of the organism's evolution. This, too, is "under debate." bsky.app/profile/moni...

Original post on mastodon.nl

@1goodtern on X wrote

Breaking:
Confirmed Black Death case in England, as per UK Government report.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/...

Yersinia pestis

#BlackDeath […]

For those w/ German here's a trailer re: the excavations of the Cathedral Plaza of Sankt Pölten, Austria, a site used for burials from the 11th to the 18thC. Amidst 1000s of individual burials, there are 2-3 layers of mass burials: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1gn.... #YersiniaPestis has been confirmed.

image_0

YERSINIA PESTIS (Espanya) presenta nou àlbum: "Putrefactio" #YersiniaPestis #BlackMetal #Març2025 #Espanya #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic

🚨 Postdoc Opportunity – Host-Pathogen Interactions 🚨
🦠 Join our team to study the microevolution of Y. pestis in flea-borne transmission as part of the ANR-funded ADAPT project!
🔬 Profile: PhD in microbiology
📆 Start: May 2025 (up to 2 years)

#Postdoc #Microbiology #YersiniaPestis #ResearchJobs

First of all, what is this study trying to do? It's coming out of the lab of Yang & Cui, who have been contributing enormously important work on the genetics of #YersiniaPestis for years. It builds on that background by analyzing a total of 3318 Y. pestis genomes, 2336 of them newly sequenced. 3/n

Worst. Username. Ever. #yersiniapestis

Neolithic plague bacterium did not cause mass mortality Study by the Collaborative Research Centre 1266 ‘Scales of Transformation‘ shows possible infection paths of Yersinia pestis 5000 years ago.

A new study led by #ClusterROOTS members Ben Krause-Kyora and Almut Nebel shows that the #Neolithic #plague bacterium did not cause mass mortality. It also shows possible infection paths of #Yersiniapestis 5000 years ago. The study has been published in #communicationsbiology.
🏺

Study finds human body lice can transmit plague bacteria Researchers adapted a strain of human body lice to study their infection dynamics with Yersinia pestis, finding that lice can become infected and transmit the plague bacterium.

Study finds human body lice can transmit plague bacteria 🦠🔬👩‍🔬 www.news-medical.net/news/2024052... #Plague #YersiniaPestis #BodyLice #InfectiousDiseases #VectorBiology #Epidemiology #DiseaseTransmission #Microbiology @plos.bsky.social

Le mystère de la #pestenoire résolu 7 siècles plus tard? Au Moyen-Age en seulement 8 ans, la maladie a tué 60 % de la population d’Europe Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord. Le bacille #YersiniaPestis était transmis à l’homme par les puces des rongeurs

20minutes.fr/sante/3310431-…

Le mystère de la #pestenoire résolu 7 siècles plus tard? Au Moyen-Age en seulement 8 ans, la maladie a tué 60 % de la population d’Europe Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord. Le bacille #YersiniaPestis était transmis à l’homme par les puces des rongeurs

20minutes.fr/sante/3310431-…