A developmental origins of infectious disease? Using incremental carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to illuminate the role of age-at-weaning on infectious disease mortality

The Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease focuses on how early childhood and in utero stress affect mortality from metabolic disorder. The role of early childhood stress in mortality from infectious disease is currently understudied. One of the earliest forms of nutritional stress occurs during weaning, and weaning too early or too late can be detrimental to the health of the infant. Using a bioarchaeological approach, this research investigates the effect of age-at-weaning and early childhood diet on the cholera mortality by analyzing 19th century cholera victims from rural Italy. Canines and bone fragments were taken from individuals from two cholera cemeteries in rural Tuscany and Sicily, and two contemporaneous comparative skeletal collections. Each tooth was cut into 1.5 – 2 mm increments, and carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis was used to reconstruct diet and estimate age-at-weaning. Bone collagen was used to reconstruct the adult diet. Weaning patterns and dietary trends were compared between cholera victims and their contemporaneous populations to establish if age-at-weaning and diet differed between these populations. The results of this analysis indicate that weaning patterns varied between individuals and populations.