In a recent episode of Dr. K’s Exotic Animal ER on Nat Geo Wild, a client brought in a pet prairie dog. As I watched, I wondered if the audience knew that prairie dogs are amplifying hosts for plague. Radford G. Davis, DVM, explains the disease and the eminent risk to dogs and cats from interactions or ingesting infected rodents.
Clinicians living in enzootic areas may be the first to recognize plague and have the opportunity to intervene and prevent human infections.
Source: Clinician’s Brief, February 2019. Link. Plague is a flea-borne zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is maintained in a sylvatic enzootic cycle in rural and semirural areas, primarily through flea transmission among certain wild rodents that experience low mortality rates.
Cats and dogs can become infected with Y pestis through consumption of infected small mammals and via flea bites.
INSIGHTS: Clinicians who suspect plague in a patient should immediately notify state health officials, who can facilitate diagnostic testing. Ideally, samples should be collected prior to antibiotic administration, but treatment should never be delayed while waiting for laboratory results.
Animals suspected of having plague should not be immediately released from the clinical setting, as they pose a risk to the owners, and instead should be placed in isolation and treated using strict infection prevention procedures.