Rats weren't solely responsible for the plague.
Rats were not alone in causing The Black Death
The rodents are regarded as the cause of The Black Death pandemic that killed millions of people across Europe during the 1300s but a new study has suggested that body lice was equally as culpable for spreading the illness.
It has been long suspected that the disease transmitted from rats to humans via the bite of infected fleas but new research has revealed that human body lice are more efficient at transmitting Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the plague, than first thought.
Dr. David Bland, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, said: "These findings suggest that body lice may be more efficient spreaders of Y. pestis than previously thought and they could have played a role in past plague outbreaks."