Evidence of Salmonella Paratyphi C found for the first time in medieval northern Europe
Genome research conducted by the University of Warwick suggests that enteric fever, a potentially lethal disease more commonly found in hot countries, was present in medieval Europe.
Salmonella Paratyphi C causes enteric fever, a life-threatening infection, and has been detected in a 800 year old human skeleton discovered in Trondheim, Norway.
Now scientists are speculating that the evolution of enteric fever could be linked to the domestication of pigs across northern Europe.
The research was conducted by a team of international collaborators led by Professor Mark Achtman of the University's Warwick Medical School and their paper Pan-genome Analysis of Ancient and Modern Salmonella enterica Demonstrates Genomic Stability of the Invasive Para C Lineage for Millennia has been published in the journal Current Biology. Read more.
