Hundreds of prairie dogs die of plague

[treesparrow]

Epidemic Hazard in USA on Tuesday, 18 September, 2012 at 18:42 (06:42 PM) UTC.

Residents in the Concho Valley area off of Highway 61 noticed hundreds of prairies dogs had died in a short span of time. Prairie dogs are considered sentinel animals to the fact that plague is in the area. Officials with Arizona Game and Fish were notified by an alert resident and further contact was made with health officials from Apache and Coconino counties, the state health department, as well as experts at Northern Arizona University. NAU is home to the Microbial Genetics and Genomics Center and has been a key player in testing for plague for the past 10 years. The lab sent a team to the area to trap fleas in the prairie dog holes that had recent die-offs. The team’s first visit was on August 27 and results from the lab testing showed positive for plague.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=EH-20120918-36614-USA

 

[loreta]

You know, Prairie dogs have always been the "bad guys"- An excuse to kill them, to make a sort of genocide with them. In some states you can torture a Prairie dog, you can burn them, eliminated them without any retaliation, in fact you have the yes from authorities to do what you want with them. They where "responsible" some years ago about a sort of plague but studies prove that it was not true. Because of this sort of plague that "supposedly" caused the death of some people, all the Prairie dogs have to be banned from earth. Myself I can not go to Canada with my prairie dogs (they are dead now) because this law or interdiction is also in Canada. So now this. I will check with my mentor in this subject, a woman who is giving his life and energy to save Prairie Dogs. I will ask her if this news is valuable. Maybe yes. But since I know that the other plague was a lie to have them eradicated completely from this planet, I am suspicious.

Thank you.

 

[loreta]

I contacted my friend about Prairie dogs. This is what she told me:

"Afraid so my friend. i blame humans. They brought back the black footed ferrets and vaccinate them against plague but not PDs?! I hate it."

So now, I imagine, they will continue to kill all the rest of Prairie Dogs. This is terrible.

 

[Redrock12]

Loreta, in Canada the black-footed prairie dog is a protected species.
Rather it is the Richardson's ground squirrel, better known as the gopher, that is the problem. All of the Canadian plains is literally overrun with this little critter. They destroy natural grasslands and, because of their exploding numbers, threaten the prairie dog population.