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Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » TB’s Unexpected Journey

TB’s Unexpected Journey

September 1, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/140901_sciup_seal.mp3

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Sea lion from Isla Ballestas2c Peru2c credit Sara Marsteller ASU
Sea lion from Isla Ballestas, Peru. (Sara Marsteller/ASU)

BOB HIRSHON (host):

TB’s unexpected journey.  I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Tuberculosis hitched a ride from Africa to South America with marine mammals before infecting humans there, according to a new study. Arizona State anthropologist Anne Stone was on a team that analyzed DNA from 1000-year-old human remains from Peru.

ANNE STONE (Arizona State University):

We discovered that the ancient South American human TB samples were most closely related to TB strains found in seals and sea lions. And that of course was a huge surprise, it was not what we were expecting.

HIRSHON:

Stranger still, she says this strain of TB probably first originated with humans in Africa.

STONE:

Humans got TB, we don’t really know from where, they then gave it to an animal; it got to seals and sea lions, it spread amongst them, including those that swam to South America.

HIRSHON:

Stone says hunting was likely to blame for the interspecies disease transmission. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Animal Behavior, Marine Science, Medicine & Health, Wildlife
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