"The Silk Road is so called for perhaps the most famous commodity that crossed its inter-connected network of trade routes criss-crossing Eurasia.- AFP "This proves for the first time that travellers along the Silk Road really were responsible for the spread of infectious disease along this route in the past. "The liver fluke could not have been endemic in this dry region," said a statement from Cambridge University, whose researchers took part in the study. "Xuanquanzhi in Dunhuang was a popular stopping place for merchants, explorers, soldiers and government officials. "Finding evidence for this species (liver fluke) in the latrine indicates that a traveller had come here from a region of China with plenty of water, where the parasite was endemic," said study co-author Piers Mitchell.

Source: The Nation Bangkok July 21, 2016 23:03 UTC