Nature: Collapse of Aztec society linked to catastrophic salmonella outbreak

Collapse of Aztec society linked to catastrophic salmonella outbreak

Bettmann/Getty One of the worst epidemics in human history, a sixteenth-century pestilence that devastated Mexico's native population, may have been caused by a deadly form of salmonella from Europe, a pair of studies suggest. In one study, researchers say they have recovered DNA of the stomach bacterium from burials in Mexico linked to a 1540s epidemic that killed up to 80% of the country's native inhabitants.

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