Black rats may not have been to blame for
numerous outbreaks of the bubonic plague across Europe, a study suggests. The
Black Death, which originated in Asia, arrived in Europe in 1347 and caused one
of the deadliest outbreaks in human history. Professor Nils Christian Stenseth and his
colleagues from the University of Oslo do not think a rat reservoir was to
blame. The team believes that specific weather conditions in Asia may have
caused another plague-carrying rodent - the giant gerbil - to thrive and this
then later led to epidemics in Europe. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31588671
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