PARIS - Horse domestication changed the face of Eurasia, helping ancient Huns and Mongols supplant western "Indo-European" farmers in an incremental westward drive that also brought Hepatitis B and plague, scientists said Wednesday. According to the data, the steppe population changed "from being of mainly western Eurasian genetic ancestry to... east Asian genetic ancestry," said Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, who co-authored two of the studies. "It's also changing the steppe in terms of being Indo-European speakers to becoming Turkish-speaking people." Yet today, "the people living in central Asia and western Asia are really of Asian descent," said Willerslev. Scientists are keen to learn more about when the virus arose, and the rate by which it mutates.

Source: Bangkok Post May 09, 2018 18:22 UTC