Animal Diseases Leapt To Humans When We Started Keeping Livestock (nature.com)
- Reference: 0178319560
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/07/09/1649202/animal-diseases-leapt-to-humans-when-we-started-keeping-livestock
- Source link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02165-x
The genomic study, published in Nature, identified 5,486 DNA sequences from bacteria, viruses and parasites in blood remnants from bones and teeth spanning 37,000 years. Zoonotic pathogens were detected only in remains 6,500 years old or younger, peaking around 5,000 years ago when pastoralist communities from the Steppe region migrated into Europe with large herds. The plague bacterium Yersinia pestis first appears in the dataset between 5,700-5,300 years ago.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02165-x
If it werent for sheep (Score:3, Insightful)
We wouldnt have scottish jokes
Re: (Score:1)
That's a bunch of crap.
Re: (Score:2)
Um. The cliche has always been about the Welsh, not the Scottish
Re: If it werent for sheep (Score:2)
Logic quiz?
A man is driving through Montana.
On the side of the road there is a sheep stuck in a fence.
What time is it?
It's Mountain Time!
Re: (Score:2)
Serves the sheep right for trying to eat my dental floss bushes.
OMG logic people (Score:2)
Saying this happened "when pastoralist communities from the Steppe region migrated into Europe with large herds" means that that's when they notice it in the DNA of European fossilized remains, NOT when it started in the Steppe region!!!
Good Lord...
Next researchers will study offspring of survivors (Score:2)
The researchers now plan to study the offspring of survivors to see if they differ from the general population in some way.
live stock (Score:2)
This is why we should outlaw [1]bat [nature.com] ranches.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-020-0394-z
Re: (Score:2)
The prevalence of bats around Texas state capital Austin, might explain the battiness of the Texas legislature. I miss Molly Ivins.
Re: (Score:2)
PETA would support that.
Nonsense (Score:2)
Everyone knows that's disinformation to hide how deeply rooted in history opposition to vaccines really is.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps. The Latin adjective vaccinus means "of or from the cow".
Exposure to cows (cowpox) conveyed immunity from the related smallpox virus to humans.
Fleas (Score:2)
I thought the plague was from fleas on rats. I don't think man has ever "raised" rats.
Re: (Score:3)
The Nature article is okay, although the title could be better. The Slashdot summary is crap. The Nature subtitle is "When hunter-gatherers began living close to animals, the pathogens that cause the plague and leprosy got closer too."
Zoonotic infection didn't start with animal herding. Herpes simplex type 2 likely jumped to our ancestors from chimps more than a million years ago. Zoonotic infection became much more common, i.e. "the pathogens got closer" with herding.
Plague might or might not be due to her
Can't be right (Score:1)
Everyone knows covid came from a lab and didn't jump from an animal in a wet market to humans.
Who are they trying to fool? /s
Sad (Score:2)
What's sad is that someone had to spend a considerable amount of money and time to determine the obvious fact that viruses and bacterias don't discriminate against their hosts.
Common knowledge (Score:4, Interesting)
This has been common knowledge at least since Jared Diamond published Guns, Germs, and Steel in 1997.
Maybe DNA tests have confirmed, but we have known this for a while.
Re: (Score:3)
And you'd think it'd be common knowledge in that we should all know some basics about genetics and evolution and if we share a common ancestor and like 80-99% of our DNA with other mammals and like over 30% with all other life on Earth that viral infections could adapt, like it logically follows if you understand and believe those things are true.
But of course that's the rub ain't it, to say animal to human transmission is possible is implicitly acknowledging all those other things are true as we know them
Re: (Score:3)
I've been reading "The Dawn of Everything" by Graeber and Wengrow and it's basically a long list of things we thought we knew about prehistory and are finding out we were wrong now that we have better tools and fewer biases. It's always worthwhile to make sure the narratives we've made up actually align with hard evidence and alter them if they don't.
Re: (Score:1)
The article states that this is not a new idea, but that they now have data to help prove it.
Know vs. Suspect (Score:5, Insightful)
> Maybe DNA tests have confirmed, but we have known this for a while.
There is a difference between knowing something is true and suspecting something is true. This is why we invented science: it let's us test our ideas to see whether the data support or refure them. This is why it is always important to check what you think you know against reality: you don't know something until you have the data to support it and there is always a chance that you may learn something new and surprising.