Animal helminths in human archaeological remains: a review of zoonoses in the past

Abstract

SuMMaRYThe authors present a review of records of intestinal parasitic helminths from animals in human archaeological remains, reported since the emergence of paleopathological studies. The objective was to relate paleoparasitological findings to geographic, biotic, and abiotic factors from the environment in which the prehistoric populations lived, and understand some aspects related to the process of human dispersion and biological and cultural evolution. Modification of eating habits and the incorporation of new cultural practices are analyzed from the perspective of zoonoses from prehistory to the present day, especially in Brazilian indigenous populations. Three tables identifying the helminths, their natural hosts, dates, and sites of archaeological findings complete this review. In conclusion, various zoonoses known today have occurred since antiquity, and these data, combined with studies on the emergence and reemergence of diseases, could make possible to compose scenarios for the future.

Synthesizing Parasitology with Archaeology in Paleopathology

“…Chagas disease was once thought to have emerged in Andean cultures after animal domestication, but the growing body of evidence shows that Chagas disease was distributed in North and South America before agriculture. There are similar paradigm shifts for many other species (Reinhard 1990(Reinhard , 1992aSianto et al 2005Sianto et al , 2009). Barrett et al (1998) painted a picture of the state of human parasitism from a paleopathological perspective in broad-brush strokes.…”

Food, parasites, and epidemiological transitions: A broad perspective

“…Reviews of parasite evidence from New World archaeological sites show that zoonotic infections from wild reservoirs were diverse and common , Fugassa et al, 2011, Moore et al, 1969, Reinhard, 1990and Sianto et al, 2009). In addition, diverse flukes and tapeworms infected prehistoric Americans, varying across local resources and varied continental ecologies (Fry, 1977, Gonçalves et al, 2003, Reinhard, 1990, 1992aand Sianto et al, 2009.…”

“…In addition, diverse flukes and tapeworms infected prehistoric Americans, varying across local resources and varied continental ecologies (Fry, 1977, Gonçalves et al, 2003, Reinhard, 1990, 1992aand Sianto et al, 2009. Indeed, the majority of parasite species found in prehistoric New World site have animal origins (Gonçalves et al, 2003;Reinhard, 1990).…”

“…Thus, ancient people's coprolites and intestines may contain eggs from two distinctive sources: adult parasites in the intestines and food sources that simply pass through the digestive system. Paleoparasitological studies from Patagonia , the Arizona desert (Reinhard, 1990(Reinhard, , 1992a) and the semiarid regions of Brazil (Sianto et al, 2009) report animal parasite eggs in human coprolites. This suggests one of two alternative explanations: true parasitism with established infections or false parasitism whereby helminth eggs pass through the intestinal tract without infecting the human host (Sianto et al, 2005).…”

Archéologie d’un parasite du cheval

“…Toutefois, les données concernant les parasites d'animaux sont peu fréquentes et souvent diluées dans des monographies de sites archéologiques ou des rapports de fouilles. De ce fait, les synthèses de données traitant uniquement des paléopathologies vétérinaires sont encore plus rares et font défaut à la bonne compréhension de l'hitoire des maladies (Jones et al, 1988 ;Sianto et al, 2009 ;Le Bailly et Bouchet, 2010).…”