The epidemic known as the Black Death devastated Europe from 1347 to 1353 and killed millions of people. It is often treated as an event that came and then went. The plague did not disappear after that first outbreak. Over the next five centuries it returned to Europe again and again, strongly affected communities, and reshaped cities and trade routes.
A study led by the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics traces that long and complicated spread in detail. The results show that plague did not reach Estonia only once. One of the clearest findings is genetic diversification of the plague bacterium between 1450 and 1500, when it divided into three major branches that created new infection foci among wild rodents.
The account is part of a science digest by Katre Palo, executive editor of Loodusajakiri, and is developed further in Horisont 5/2026.
Source: maaelu.postimees.ee
Tartu genomics institute · plague bacterium evolution · Black Death Estonia · paleogenomics research · University of Tartu · European plague history