The Black Death plague thought to have killed between 30 and 60 percent of Europe's population may not have been spread by flea-infested rats, scientists say. Top News .

The black rat, or ship rat, was thought to have helped transmit the Black Death. (Image credit: John Downer via Getty Images) The Black Death ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1353, killing millions.

Between 1340 and 1400, the Black Death spread throughout Europe, killing more than 20 million people.For hundreds of years, it was thought that fleas carried by black rats spread the deadly disease.

The Black Death ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1353, killing millions. ... The Black Death May Not Have Been Spread By Rats After All. Date. 2023-01-18 02:13:02 ...

In cases of plague since the late 1800s—including an outbreak in Madagascar in 2017—rats and other rodents helped spread the disease. If Y. pestis infects rats, the bacterium can pass to fleas ...

Related video: Black Plague Evolved Over Thousands of Years To Become a More Deadly Pandemic. ... Rats may not have played a critical role in causing the Black Death as is often portrayed, ...

Reducing the copies of one gene in the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, made it less deadly but potentially more transmissible ...

The plague — which in the mid-14th century was also known as the Black Death — devastated swaths of Europe, killing millions in under a decade. One of the puzzles surrounding this ancient ...

The mystery: How did bubonic plague spread so rapidly? Could rat fleas have done it all? A new study points the finger at lice as possible accomplices.

Over half of rats tested in big cities resistant to poison Experts warn of a public health crisis READ MORE: Controversial proposal to pay hunters cash to kill feral animals Black rats in ...