Columbus innocent over anthrax in the Americas

Columbus innocent over anthrax in the Americas

www.newscientist.com

When Europeans invaded the Americas they introduced many Old World diseases that decimated Native Americans. Scientists had thought that anthrax was one of them. New research shows, however, that the deadly bacteria arrived in the Americas thousands of years earlier, when Stone Age humans crossed the Bering land bridge.

The military Ames strain behind the 2001 anthrax attacks, however, is a recent Asian immigrant.

Anthrax bacteria can live in soil for decades as tough spores, until they are inhaled by a grazing animal. Then they multiply explosively, kill the animal, and bleed into the soil to await the next victim.

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This is an excellent article that illustrates the origin and mutation of the anthrax bacteria worlwide.

I am surprised that Anthrax had arrived in the Americas even before Columbus set foot there.

Is there any record of native Indians dying from Anthrax 13000 years ago? Probably not, but just goes on to show that these bacteria and virus "creatures" have been smarter than humans and will probably outlast us




www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)