Tuberculosis xxx (2015) 1e4

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Evidence for tuberculosis in 18th/19th century slaves in Anse Sainte-Marguerite (Guadeloupe e French Western Indies) € sch a, *, 1, Mi-Ra Kim a, b, 1, Olivier Dutour c, d, Patrice Courtaud d, Frank Maixner e, Sandra Lo Thomas Romon f, Christophe Sola g, Albert Zink e a

Department of Physical Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, Switzerland Benedictus Hospital Tutzing, Germany Laboratoire d'Anthropologie biologique Paul Broca, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, France d PACEA-A3P, Universit e Bordeaux1, Talence, France e Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, EURAC, Bolzano, Italy f INRAP GSO, PACEA-A3P, Gourbeyre, Guadeloupe, France g Institut de G en etique et Microbiologie, UMR8621, Universit e Paris-Sud, 11-CNRS, Universud, Orsay, France b c

s u m m a r y Keywords: M. tuberculosis Bones Ancient DNA Slaves Guadeloupe

During the American colonization in the 18th and 19th century, Africans were captured and shipped to America. Harsh living and working conditions often led to chronic diseases and high mortality rates. Slaves in the Caribbean were forced to work mainly on sugar plantations. They were buried in cemeteries like Anse Sainte-Marguerite on the isle of Grande-Terre (Guadeloupe) which was examined by archaeologists and physical anthropologists. Morphological studies on osseous remains of 148 individuals revealed 15 cases with signs for bone tuberculosis and a high frequency of periosteal reactions which indicates early stages of the disease. 11 bone samples from these cemeteries were analysed for ancient DNA. The samples were extracted with established procedures and examined for the cytoplasmic multicopy b-actin gene and Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex DNA (IS 6110) by PCR. An amplification product for M. tuberculosis with the size of 123 bp was obtained. Sequencing confirmed the result. This study shows evidence of M. tuberculosis complex DNA in a Caribbean slave population. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean during his second trip to the Americas in 1493. France colonized it in 1635 and began to cultivate sugar cane and coffee. For this purpose, slaves were shipped from Africa to the New World to work on plantations. Between 1997 and 2000, a cemetery was excavated in Anse Sainte-Marguerite on Guadeloupe's eastern coast in the district of Le Moule, Grande-Terre (Figure 1) [1]. 148 individuals were excavated. Most graves show Christian funeral rites [1]. According to the grave goods the cemetery dates between the second part of the 18th and the middle of the 19th

* Corresponding author. Department of Physical Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, Sulgenauweg 40, 3007 Bern, Switzerland. Tel.: þ41 31 631 8492. €sch). E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Lo 1 Both authors contributed equally.

century AD. Historical and archaeological investigations revealed that the burial ground was a slave cemetery. Main indicators are the inhumations at the beach far away from a church, cranial morphology, and teeth mutilations. This is the first cemetery from the colonial period that was excavated on Guadeloupe. Other skeletons from New World colonial period cemeteries had been investigated anthropologically before [7,10]. The morphological, anthropological and palaeopathological investigation of the Anse Sainte-Marguerite skeletons revealed signs for tuberculosis in 15 cases [3] which indicates an overall frequency of 9.9% (15/148). Some show typical macromorphological alterations for tuberculosis, others revealed signs for possible tuberculosis lesions. Tuberculosis lesions are classical signs for TB and also called “MOLAT” (minor osseous lesions attributable to TB). Another sign for tuberculosis is an affection of the lower thoracic and upper lumbar spine involving only 2e4 vertebrae. The cortical destruction of the anterior region of the vertebrae and the resulting collapse

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tube.2015.02.006 1472-9792/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

€ sch S, et al., Evidence for tuberculosis in 18th/19th century slaves in Anse Sainte-Marguerite (Guadeloupe e Please cite this article in press as: Lo French Western Indies), Tuberculosis (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tube.2015.02.006

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€sch et al. / Tuberculosis xxx (2015) 1e4 S. Lo

Figure 1. Geographical location of Anse Sainte-Marguerite on the isle of Grande-Terre (Guadeloupe, French Western Indies).

leads to angular kyphosis and a vertebrae fusion. This is also known as Pott's disease. MOLAT are early stages of tuberculosis and include rib lesions on the visceral surface, endocranial changes, especially on the frontal parietal bone, hypervascularization of vertebrae and hypertrophic osteoarthropathy [11]. Tuberculosis spreads between humans by infectious aerosols (M. tuberculosis) or by ingestion of infected meat or milk (Mycobacterium bovis). Skeletal tuberculosis is usually the consequence of haematogenous or lymphatic dissemination of the Mycobacterium after primary infection of the lungs or intestines. Bone lesions occur in about 3e5% of active tuberculosis infections [11]. In case of skeletal TB the spine is affected in about 25e50%, especially the thoracic and lumbar region, the hip joint in 15e30%, and the knee in 10e20% of the cases. Cranial tuberculosis at the frontal or parietal bone can be seen in 1e2% of the cases. An unilateral joint involvement is also typical for skeletal tuberculosis. Spina ventosa is a tuberculosis bone manifestation which occurs particularly at children. It is a quite rare skeletal manifestation of a diaphyseal expansive lesion of short tubular hand and feet bones and impresses as a painless swelling. There are several studies on ancient mycobacterium DNA that caused tuberculosis (Donoghue and others, 2010; [9,14,16]. Until now, the two oldest cases of ancient tuberculosis infection were found in an 8000 year old human body [5] and in an 17,000 year old bison [13]. There is also evidence for Mycobacterium tuberculosis aDNA in the New World [6]. Tuberculosis is currently the second most cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide. In 2011, there were 8.7 million new cases of TB. In 2012, a total of 1.4 million people died of TB [15]. Bad living conditions, malnutrition, and co-infections which affect the immune system support the spreading of infectious diseases like tuberculosis.

The aim of this study was to analyse individuals from a slave cemetery (Anse Sainte-Marguerite) for TB with ancient DNA techniques. 2. Material 148 individuals were excavated. Some individuals could not be completely retrieved due to disturbances and a re-usage of the cemetery. An anthropological-palaeopathological investigation was performed: 79 skeletons were classified as adults, 69 as children and sub-adults [3]. Samples of 11 skeletons were investigated in an ancient DNA lab (Institute of Pathology, Municipal Clinics Munich, Germany) and a Table 1 Anthropologic and palaeopathologic data of the investigated bone specimen (ASM ¼ Anse Sainte-Marguerite, G ¼ lab number, adult ¼ over 20 years, f ¼ female, m ¼ male, n.d. ¼ not determined). #

Excavation no. Sex Age

G1

ASM 97_S10

G2

ASM99_S15

G3 G4 G5 G6

ASM02_S231 ASM00_S207 ASM02_S210 ASM97_S19

5th/6th thoracic vertebrae m Adult 5th/10th thoracic vertebrae n.d. n.d. Right calcaneus n.d. Adult Left ulna n.d. n.d. Thoracic vertebrae f 15e20 y Thoracic vertebrae

G7

ASM99_S107

m

m

Skeletal element

Adult

Adult

G8 ASM02_S260 G9 ASM98_S65 G10 ASM97_S17

n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d.

19th century slaves in Anse Sainte-Marguerite (Guadeloupe - French Western Indies).

During the American colonization in the 18th and 19th century, Africans were captured and shipped to America. Harsh living and working conditions ofte...
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