A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, analyzed the feces of Vikings to create a genetic map of the parasite. Getty Images Bank
It was confirmed through the feces of ancient Vikings that parasites also spread when modern humans migrated from Africa to other areas.
A research team from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark published the results of genetic analysis of whipworm eggs among parasites in feces found in Viking settlements in the international scientific journal Nature Communications on September 6th.
The research team collected fossilized fecal samples from latrines in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Lithuania, where Vikings once lived. The eggs of the parasites were isolated therein and genetic analysis was performed. Christian Capel, a professor of plant and environmental sciences at the University of Copenhagen, said, “There was also a 5,000-year-old whipworm egg among the extracted DNA.
The research team compared the genes of whipworms at that time with modern samples obtained from nine countries, including Africa, Central America, Asia and Europe, and examined the mitochondrial genetic changes of whipworms over 10,000 years. Maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA is mainly used for phylogenetic analysis and is used as a clue to trace the origin of evolution.
As a result, it was revealed that whipworms from Africa moved sequentially to Asia and back to Amekira. This pattern coincides with the direction in which modern humans spread, so the team concluded that whipworms also spread when humans migrated from Africa regarding 55,000 years ago.
Whipworm, one of the oldest parasites found in humans, is said to have evolved in a way that stimulates the human immune system and the gut microbiota to benefit both the host and the parasite. Whipworms in modern industrialized societies do not pose a major problem to healthy individuals, but can cause serious illness in people with malnutrition or compromised immune systems.
Professor Capel said, “The Vikings and the Middle Ages had poor sanitary conditions and the cooking facilities and toilets were well separated, so whipworms might spread easily,” said Professor Capel. “He said.
