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One Health Approaches to Trace Mycobacterium leprae’s Zoonotic Potential Through Time

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posted on 2022-11-18, 16:45 authored by C Urban, AA Blom, S Pfrengle, K Walker-Meikle, AC Stone, SA Inskip, VJ Schuenemann
Hansen’s disease (leprosy), mainly caused by infection with Mycobacterium leprae, has accompanied humanity for thousands of years. Although currently rare in Europe, there are over 200,000 new infections annually in South East Asia, Africa, and South America. Over the years many disciplines – palaeopathology, ancient DNA and other ancient biomolecules, and history – have contributed to a better understanding of leprosy’s past, in particular its history in medieval Europe. We discuss their contributions and potential, especially in relation to the role of inter-species transmission, an unexplored phenomenon in the disease’s history. Here, we explore the potential of interdisciplinary approaches that understand disease as a biosocial phenomenon, which is a product of both infection with M. leprae and social behaviours that facilitate transmission and spread. Genetic evidence of M. leprae isolated from archaeological remains combined with systematic zooarchaeological and historical analysis would not only identify when and in what direction transmission occurred, but also key social behaviours and motivations that brought species together. In our opinion, this combination is crucial to understand the disease’s zoonotic past and current potential.

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Citation

Urban C, Blom AA, Pfrengle S, Walker-Meikle K, Stone AC, Inskip SA and Schuenemann VJ (2021) One Health Approaches to Trace Mycobacterium leprae’s Zoonotic Potential Through Time. Front. Microbiol. 12:762263. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.762263

Author affiliation

School of Archaeology and Ancient History

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  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Frontiers in Microbiology

Volume

12

Publisher

Frontiers Media SA

eissn

1664-302X

Acceptance date

2021-09-16

Copyright date

2021

Available date

2022-11-18

Language

en

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