Objective

This paper seeks to review the possibilities and difficulties in identifying rare diseases in ancient animals. Rare diseases are important in human medicine but seldom discussed in modern veterinary practice.

Materials and Methods

A total of 1348 pathological archaeozoological remains, most published in the literature, are evaluated. With the exception of a few animal burials, the majority were recovered from food refuse: deposits composed of co-mingled, single bone fragments.

Results

Determination of population-based prevalence is not applicable in animal paleopathology, as almost all lesions occur on isolated bones. Moreover, grave hereditary diseases are rarely detected on animal bones because animals with such disorders seldom survived, except when humans promoted their rare inherited traits.

Significance

Rare diseases form a special category in human pathology posing both therapeutic and ethical challenges. While in wild animals natural selection tends to prevent the inheritance of such conditions, curious cases of animal morbidity have been brought about by domestication. Humans sheltered animals of lesser vitality and sometimes even promoted their negative traits. Understanding these phenomena in animal paleopathology will help fine-tuning the rare disease paradigm.

Limitations

The definition of rare disease in animal paleopathology can only be assessed based on ancient and modern human correlates, and rare variation could become cultivated traits, ultimately developed into part of “normal” variability as trademark breed characteristics. Taphonomic limitations in recovering osteological evidence of debilitating hereditary diseases in animals are unlikely to improve.

Suggestions for further research: Further research will need to focus on the scarce osteological evidence for rare conditions in light of differential diagnoses. The concept of “rare disease” may be worth expanding beyond hereditary conditions in animals considering fundamental differences between past animal and human lifeways.

中文翻译：

---

什么是动物古病理学中的罕见疾病？

客观的

本文旨在回顾识别古代动物罕见疾病的可能性和困难。罕见病在人类医学中很重要，但在现代兽医实践中很少讨论。

材料和方法

共评估了 1348 件病理考古学遗骸，其中大部分已发表在文献中。除了少数动物墓葬外，大多数是从食物垃圾中回收的：由混合的单骨碎片组成的沉积物。

结果

基于人群的患病率的确定不适用于动物古病理学，因为几乎所有病变都发生在孤立的骨骼上。此外，在动物骨骼上很少发现严重的遗传性疾病，因为患有这种疾病的动物很少能幸存下来，除非人类促进了它们罕见的遗传特征。

意义

罕见病是人类病理学中的一个特殊类别，这对治疗和伦理提出了挑战。虽然在野生动物中，自然选择往往会阻止这种情况的遗传，但驯化导致了动物发病的奇怪案例。人类庇护生命力较弱的动物，有时甚至宣扬它们的负面特征。了解动物古病理学中的这些现象将有助于微调罕见疾病范式。

限制

动物古病理学中罕见病的定义只能根据古代和现代人类相关性进行评估，罕见变异可能成为栽培性状，最终发展为“正常”变异的一部分，作为商标品种特征。在恢复动物衰弱性遗传疾病的骨学证据方面的埋藏学局限性不太可能得到改善。

进一步研究的建议：根据鉴别诊断，进一步的研究将需要关注罕见疾病的稀缺骨学证据。考虑到过去动物和人类生活方式之间的根本差异，“罕见疾病”的概念可能值得扩展到动物的遗传条件之外。