据一项研究显示，老鼠并非传播黑死病这场瘟疫的罪魁祸首。人们曾经普遍认为，在15到20世纪欧洲爆发的一系列疾病是由啮齿动物及鼠蚤大范围扩散而导致的。然而，来自挪威奥斯陆和意大利费拉拉市部分大学的研究团队发现，黑死病肆虐其实另有原因。

Scientists used historical records from plague outbreaks in nine European cities, building a picture of how the disease spread.

They then compared the actual spread to three computer-simulated outbreaks: One where the disease was transmitted by rat fleas, one where it was airborne and another that modelled the transmission by fleas and lice that live on humans and their clothes.

Their conclusion: human lice caused the pandemic because this model mimicked the actual spread of the Black Death much more closely than the others.

科学家们利用九个欧洲城市的瘟疫爆发历史记录再现了该病在当时传播的过程。

接着，他们把实际的传播过程与计算机模拟生成的三类爆发情况做了比较。这三类爆发分别是由鼠蚤传播、经空气传播以及依靠人类身上寄生的跳蚤和虱子传播的模拟情况。 

这组科学家给出的结论是：由于该模型模拟生成的黑死病实际传播情况要比其它研究更加仔细，所以他们认为人类身上的虱子才是导致这场流行病的原因。