Mass burial genomics reveals outbreak of enteric paratyphoid fever in the Late Medieval trade city Lübeck

Magdalena Haller; Kimberly Callan; Julian Susat; Anna Lena Flux; Alexander Immel; Andre Franke; Alexander Herbig; Johannes Krause; Anne Kupczok; Gerhard Fouquet; Susanne Hummel; Dirk Rieger; Almut Nebel; Ben Krause-Kyora

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102419

Mass burial genomics reveals outbreak of enteric paratyphoid fever in the Late Medieval trade city Lübeck

iScience. 2021 Apr 20;24(5):102419. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102419. eCollection 2021 May 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel University, 24105 Kiel, Germany.
² Present address: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
³ Department of Historical Anthropology and Human Ecology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
⁴ Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07743 Jena, Germany.
⁵ Genomic Microbiology Group, Institute of General Microbiology, Kiel University, 24118 Kiel, Germany.
⁶ Bioinformatics Group, Wageningen University & Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
⁷ Historical Seminar, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Kiel University, 24118 Kiel, Germany.
⁸ Department of Archaeology, Hanseatic City of Lübeck Historical Monuments Protection Authority, 23539 Lübeck, Germany.

Abstract

Medieval Europe was repeatedly affected by outbreaks of infectious diseases, some of which reached epidemic proportions. A Late Medieval mass burial next to the Heiligen-Geist-Hospital in Lübeck (present-day Germany) contained the skeletal remains of more than 800 individuals who had presumably died from infectious disease. From 92 individuals, we screened the ancient DNA extracts for the presence of pathogens to determine the cause of death. Metagenomic analysis revealed evidence of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi C, suggesting an outbreak of enteric paratyphoid fever. Three reconstructed S. Paratyphi C genomes showed close similarity to a strain from Norway (1200 CE). Radiocarbon dates placed the disease outbreak in Lübeck between 1270 and 1400 cal CE, with historical records indicating 1367 CE as the most probable year. The deceased were of northern and eastern European descent, confirming Lübeck as an important trading center of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic region.

Keywords: Microbiology; Paleontology.