The Scarcity of Rats and the Black Death: An Ecological History The black rat (Rattus rattus) is credited with causing the Black Death epidemic of 1347 to 1352 that killed one quarter to one third of Europe's population. But this supposed role of the rat may not be justified, although the claim is made in standard epidemiological texts, in history texts, and in countless rat control pamphlets. The Black Death has been analyzed in terms of bacteriological, epidemiological, and transmission factors, but it has never been carefully scrutinized as a rodent-related outbreak. This research note examines the history of rats in northern France and in England using current knowledge of the ecology of rodents and of rodent-borne diseases to evaluate the involvement of Rattus rattus in the Black Death. Writers have assumed, based on recent epidemics of plague, that rats were important.1 The scope of this research note is limited, except for some introductory or explanatory statements, to the possible role of rodents in the Black Death. Little is said about epidemiological, bacteriological, or clinical aspects and nothing about sociological or political aspects.
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David E. Davis (1986) studied this question.