No evidence for enzootic plague within black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) populations.

ABSTRACT: Yersinia pestis, causative agent of plague, occurs throughout the western United States in rodent populations and periodically causes epizootics in susceptible species, including black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). How Y. pestis persists long-term in the environment between these epizootics is poorly understood but multiple mechanisms have been proposed, including, among others, a separate enzootic transmission cycle that maintains Y. pestis without involvement of epizootic hosts and persistence of Y. pestis within epizootic host populations without causing high mortality within those populations. We live-trapped and collected fleas from black-tailed prairie dogs and other mammal species from sites with and without black-tailed prairie dogs in 2004 and 2005 and tested all fle

SUBMITTER: Colman RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9292313 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature