From Pandemics to Prosperity: Feeding Our Hardwired Health

Abstract

One of the most horrific historical periods was that of 1350s Europe, when 60% of the European population, some 50 million people, died under the merciless grip of the Black Death. The Bubonic, or Black Plague, was an especially nasty form of anaerobic bacterium carried to Europe on the fleas of ship rats, the latter of which were often brought to ports as unwitting stowaways in the hulls of cargo vessels. The Plague’s deadly bacterium, called Yersinia pestis, was transmitted to humans through flea bites, as it was often the case that rats would die and the hungry fleas would abandon their rodent hosts, only to jump onto other very unlucky animals. During the Black Plague, human victims could also contract the bacteria from working with, or butchering, infected animals or by breathing in droplets from an infected person sneeze or cough.