Giant Gerbils and the Bubonic Plague

[Rachael]

Here is an interesting news report on a scientific study that links the spread of the bubonic plague hundreds of years ago to the Giant Gerbil of Asia and not solely to the Black Rat as they previously thought.

Oh no, not our cute lovely gerbs!

www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31588671

[gerbillover9612]

i heard about that Don't believe it though xD
What iv'e been told is that the plague started from the fur trade. The people in the fur trade caught a certain animal and there's a part that is not to be eaten and will make you ill (this is from like 100s of years ago though xD) and the people in Western countries found that the fur trade was earning alot of money so went over and tried making money themselves. But they didn't know what to eat of the animal (can't remember what it was) they got ill and bought it back to other countries and so began the plague. Gerbils/rats will probably have caught it a spread it too but they didn't START it This is just what i have been told from someone. The article had alot more infomation and i know there is a few things i have missed out but i didn't read the article i just got told it The page it was written on had alot of facts, told you what the animal was, what part of the animal caused illness and i just find it more believable Either way, i still love my little critters as im sure we all do :') 'Vermin' or not x'D

[Rachael]

The news report does say they think the giant gerbil was largely responsible for spreading (not starting) the plague. You could be right about the fur trade starting the plague - I've never read anything about that yet.

[Shooting Star]

This article has a much better explanation:
Bubonic plague was a serial visitor in European Middle Ages

Bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis) is spread to humans by means of a vector-- the Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis). Great Gerbils are what's known as a "reservoir" species. They are infected, but don't get the disease, or only get a very mild form of it. Vector fleas bite an infected reservoir animal, and then bite a human. There's no direct transmission from gerbil to human.

It's been known since at least the 40's that Great Gerbils are a reservoir for Asian plague outbreaks, particularly in Kazakhstan.

What's new about this study is that they've tied population dynamics of Great Gerbils in Asia to European plague outbreaks. Previously, it was thought that Black Rats acted as the main reservoir, traveling on merchant ships from Asia and bringing the Bubonic Plague with them, then spreading the plague to local European rat populations which kept the plague outbreaks going.

Now, they're saying that the Great Gerbils are the main reservoir, and the different waves of Bubonic Plague were due to multiple separate "imports", as it were, rather than it being maintained continuously in local rat populations.


Further reading:
"Climatically driven synchrony of gerbil populations allows large-scale plague outbreaks" (2007)
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/274/1621/1963

"Gerbil population boom predicts plague" (2004)
www.newscientist.com/article/dn4945-gerbil-population-boom-predicts-plague.html#.VOz4ay4g7hU

"Fighting the Plague in the Great Plains with Gerbils" (2009)
www.scientificamerican.com/article/ferret-plague/

[johanne]

Also keep in mind that great gerbils and Mongolian gerbils are entirely different species.

[Rachael]

Thanks for all the extra information Shooting Star.

[xovq]

Looking at a summary of the study, it doesn't actually conclude that Great Gerbils specifically were the main reservoir, just that the plague was introduced multiple times from various reservoir rodent populations in Asia. It doesn't really specify which species of rodents, but reservoir rodents located in the particular area they studied include ground squirrels and Altai marmots.

Gerbils are only mentioned when the researchers suggest that they can look at climate fluctuations prior to plague outbreaks to identify reservoir rodent populations at the time based on current studies involving Great Gerbils as a modern reservoir population.

Summary starts 8 paragraphs down. deathsplaining.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/avoid-killer-gerbil-headlines-like-a-cliche/

And here is an article about the study written by some of the authors in the original study theconversation.com/plague-outbreaks-that-ravaged-europe-for-centuries-were-driven-by-climate-changes-in-asia-37933

Edit: Also, here is the original study for anyone interested: www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/02/20/1412887112.full.pdf+html

[gerbilist]

I think this is a study by Rat fans to discredit Gerbils, was absolutely disgusted by this revisionist study.

[Shooting Star]

The problem is that very few people appear to have read the actual study. I only just now got around to it myself, and found it fascinating.

The study does not, in fact, link Black Death outbreaks to gerbils (of any variety). Instead, it actually points out that "At these elevations [where the climate data was taken], the dominant rodent reservoirs of plague are the long-tailed ground squirrels (Spermophilus undulatus) and the Altai marmots (Marmota baibacina)". It's in the introduction of the paper -- a single paragraph of it -- that Great Gerbils are discussed as a modern example of how plague dynamics are affected by climate.