Treponemal infection in a Pleistocene bear

Abstract

The age and origins of the organisms that cause syphilis (treponemes) have long been matters for controversy^1–3. The widely-held belief that Columbus's ship brought the disease from the New World to Europe rests on identification of the classic lesions in Inca, Aztec and Mississippian bones that date from 1,000 to 3,000 years before present³. But these were not confirmed by immunological techniques. We have observed lesions characteristic of treponemal infection⁴ in a Pleistocene bear from Indiana (dated 11,500 years BP) which give a positive result when tested with the antisera used by the US Center for Disease Control for verification of syphilis infection. This is the earliest detection of treponemal disease using contemporary techniques.