Rocky Mountain Animal Defense
2525 Arapahoe,
#E4-335
Boulder, CO
80302
Phone 303-449-4422
Fax 720-565-9096
www.rmad.org info@rmad.org
FACT
SHEET: PRAIRIE DOGS, PEOPLE AND THE PLAGUE
Fears of humans contracting the plague from prairie dogs are exaggerated and generally used as an excuse for extermination. Of the42 plague cases in Colorado since 1957, only six were directly linked to prairie dogs and, of those six, only one was a fatality.
The Colorado Department of Health states, “If precautions are taken, the probability of an individual contracting plague, even in an active plague area, is quite low.”
Dozens of RMAD volunteers who have spent years of direct contact with prairie dogs during flushing and relocation are testaments to this fact. Rescuers worked without gloves and insecticides and were occasionally bitten, but no one contracted the plague or any other illness.
The fleas that carry the plague are very host-specific and generally do not infect other animals unless their natural hosts are unavailable. The plague is transmitted to people through fleabite and direct contact with infected animals. Seventy-six species of mammals carry plague, but it is primarily a disease of wild rodents other than black-tailed prairie dogs. Rock squirrels are the most significant plague host in Colorado and have been involved in most of the human cases.
The most common means of human infection is from cats and dogs, who can contract plague by catching and eating infected animals or by being bitten by infective fleas.
When a colony becomes infected with plague, 99.5 percent of the prairie dogs will die in a short period of time. In humans, the incubation period is usually two to six days. Plague in humans can be treated successfully with antibiotics if it is diagnosed early in its course.
CONTROL
AND PREVENTION
· Rodent population control, such as poisoning, is not recommended by the Colorado Department of Health. Poisoning of prairie dogs should not be employed because this releases fleas to the environment, causing additional risk to people and domestic pets.
· Dusting with insecticide powder in burrows is effective in controlling plague in relatively small high-human-use areas.
· Avoid contact with all sick and dead rodents and rabbits. Report any presence of blowflies or dead animal smell to local or state health departments.
· If we keep cats and dogs out of prairie dog colonies, the low number of human cases of the plague linked to prairie dogs will become even smaller.
Our thanks to the Colorado
Department of Health, which provided most of the information presented here.
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