Lice from Peru provide clues to migration

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Scientists say lice from Peruvian mummies provide clues to the migration of humans from Asia to the Americas.

David Reed, a mammal expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, said researchers were surprised to find that the strain of lice on 1,000-year-old mummies was genetically similar to strains found in New Guinea -- suggesting the lice were brought from East Asia.

The strain also caused a devastating typhus outbreak in Napoleon's army in Russia. The research team expected to find the same head lice now common in both Europe and the Americas.

"This definitely goes against the grain of conventional thought that all diseases were transmitted from the Old World to the New World at the time of Columbus," Reed said.

The lice and other parasites found on the mummies may provide information on when humans first crossed the Bering Strait and where the first Americans originated. The next step is to compare the parasites with those in Mongolia and eastern Siberia.

The study was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.