Long before Columbus, seals brought tuberculosis to South America
Marine mammals may have carried TB bacterium across the ocean
![South American fur seals](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ti_seals_feat_free.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
CARRIERS Seals, like the South American fur seals shown, may have given tuberculosis to people in Peru before European explorers brought the disease to the Americas.
Ricardo Bastida