An international research team led by University College Dublin has identified viral DNA from sheeppox preserved in the parchment of historically significant medieval manuscripts, including the York Gospels and the Corpus Glossary. The findings, published in Science Advances, represent the first genetic evidence that the disease was circulating through European sheep populations centuries ago.
The research team detected sheeppox virus DNA on multiple pages of several medieval documents created from animal hides. Before paper became widely available, parchment was typically produced from carefully prepared skins of sheep, goats, and cattle, which can preserve biological traces of infections present when the animals died. In addition to examining the manuscripts, researchers also studied ancient sheep teeth from Bronze Age settlements in the Eurasian steppe, allowing them to trace the virus’s history back more than 3,700 years.
The investigation brought together specialists in genetics, history, virology, protein chemistry, and conservation to analyze the manuscripts from both historical and biological perspectives. By comparing ancient viral genetic sequences with modern strains, the team determined that the main branches of the capripoxvirus family—including sheeppox, goatpox, and lumpy skin disease viruses—diverged from one another between 11,500 and 3,700 years ago. This timeline coincides with significant periods in human history, such as livestock domestication and large-scale sheep migration from the Eurasian steppe into Europe.
One notable finding was the genetic stability of sheeppox virus over thousands of years, with the pathogen’s genome remaining remarkably unchanged despite its extended history of infecting livestock. The discovery suggests that archives and libraries worldwide may contain genetic evidence of past animal disease outbreaks that left few other historical records. The research has contemporary implications as well, since sheeppox continues to threaten livestock farming operations and cause economic damage through ongoing outbreaks.
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