Discussion for article #225420
Holy shite! They’ve had 4 cases of pneumonic fever in Colorado, as well. WTF?
“It remains endemic in northwest China”
Really? I had not heard that before. This bears looking into.
WalMart cancels plans to import frozen marmot fillets.
Plague enterobacteria Yersinia pestis has been endemic in the southwest for a very long time. Prairie dogs go through periodic die off cycles from the flea bite transmitted disease. Cats pick it up sometimes, and people get it too. The pneumonic form of the disease can be transmitted from person to person and is much more dangerous. Southwestern veterinarians and physicians routinely consider a possible diagnosis of plague in their patients.
Land of the flea, home of the plague.
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There’s a plague reservoir among western ground squirrels, believe it or not.
This is a marmot:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Marmota#mediaviewer/File:Marmota_marmota_Alpes2.jpg
They’re extremely cute. That picture is of a rat, a creature not without charm in ones or twos in its domesticated coat, but rather terrifying in the hundreds or thousands. But nonetheless, apparently blameless in this little outbreak. Indeed, there’s significant evidence they may have been victims of human fleas rather than carriers in the Black Death. Rats, I mean. Not marmots.
Not much worse than a drive-by Christianist.
Shhhhh… it’s supposed to be called “beef”.
I believe it. There is also a reservoir of Hanta Virus in the field mice that feast on pine nuts, although it has been decades since a serious outbreak.