Date:January 13, 2016
Source:Colorado State University
Every now and then, colonies of prairie dogs are wiped out by plague, an infectious disease most often associated with the Black Death of the 14th century.
Plague doesn't usually kill people these days, but it's alive and well among the millions of ground-dwelling rodents of Colorado and other western states, notably the black-tailed prairie dog. They're resilient critters, though: following wholesale destruction of colonies, they seem to repopulate with a vengeance.
Colorado State University biologists say this sporadic ebb and flow of prairie dog plague is an ideal model for the study of rare infectious zoonotic disease -- disease that can jump from wildlife to humans -- like MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and Ebola.
Plague, in all its terrible forms, is caused by the Yersinia Pestis bacterium, usually spread through flea bites. Last year in Colorado, there were a handful of human cases, including at least two deaths.
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