|30 March 2009 First Americans brought anthrax? Humans were
dying of anthrax in North America much earlier than thought -
perhaps after scavenging the remains of infected animals while
migrating from Asia during the Ice Age-a new study says. "We've
always thought that anthrax was an Old World disease that was
brought to the New World by Europeans" around 1500, said study
coauthor Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University. But the new
report suggests that ancient humans entering the continent
thousands of years earlier imported the disease after crossing
the Bering land bridge, which once connected present-day Alaska
and eastern Siberia. Scientists think anthrax originated in
Africa or the Middle East thousands of years ago. One popular
theory to explain its presence in North America is that it was
brought over by Christopher Columbus and others beginning in the
late 15th century. According to this scenario, anthrax first
appeared in the southern United States or Mexico and spread
northward to Canada and the Ar