Black Death - causes?

[Bentony]

Unfortunatley for all the plague deniers there is extremely good DNA evidence to show that the plague was caused by Yersina Pestis: i.e. black death most likely in a combination of Bubonic and Pneumonic phases. It came in from the Mongol Stepps due to various factors including the expansion of the Mongol empire, the development of trade links and the growth of trade with the east, thus breaking down the isolation of the area and allowing the disease to spread. That said there were a myriad of factors that allowed it to explode the way it did in Europe at the time. In this way it is similar to the fact that it took very specific factors in the 1970's and 80's to allow the spread of HIV - including truck routes and migrant populations displaced by wars.
There is an excellent book by John Kelly called "The Great Mortality, a history of the black death" that covers the topic very well, as well as addressing all the "alternatives" to Y Pestis.
And yes, it's still out there.

 

[Jardax]

One of the Black Death theories mention lowered population of cats - a natural enemies of rats.

Cats had a difficult times during middle age. Cats were very often killed because fanatics trusted they are connected to devil, sorcery etc.... So human stupidity can be the real Plague reason.

 

[Null_Zone]

The simple fact no one truly knows why or how it spread. The rats thing comes down to the chroniclers of the time.

Definately.

Iceland for example had cases of the plague but had no rat population.

 

[Happy Joe]

If not rats how about sailors with fleas?
(or even mice?)

I believe the transmission vectors are well documented fleas transfer the disease to an intermediate carrier (around here its typically ground squirrels or prairie dogs that carry it, rats are convenient, but not necessary) or to man, if lesions develop in people's lungs they cough and it spreads rapidly producing epidemic or pandemic disease and death.

Enjoy!

 

[J Riff]

That far back in time, history is utterly unreliable.
Why are there no details of this huge event that affected millions?
How did the secret of the building of the pyramids ever dissapear?
Doesn't make sense.
One thing tho- once it got started, whatever disease or diseases it really was - no one would do anything to stop it and it would spread and mutate freely until it had run it's course.
There's a lot of questions about the masses who died during the second war in Europe, let alone hundreds of years ago.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Actually, the most widely accepted theory on what caused the Bubonic plague was that it was spread by rat fleas.

 

[Starbeast]

Plagues can happen at any time, however we have more resources to combat against them in modern times.​