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Colorado prairie dog colony has plague



COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (CNN) -- Tests confirmed a colony of prairie dogs near a subdivision southeast of the airport here are infected with the plague, and county health officials said Wednesday they are investigating whether the death of a 28-year-old man is connected.

April Tooke, a spokeswoman with the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment, said tests that came back Tuesday night confirmed the plague among the prairie dogs in the eastern part of the county. It is called bubonic plague when it infects humans, Tooke said.

The man lived nearby and rode his bicycle through the area. He died Monday after suffering plague-like symptoms, Tooke said, but tests have not yet been completed on the cause of death.

Tooke said about 150 of the 300 prairie dogs in the colony have died.

Plague is a bacterial disease of rodents, primarily transmitted to other animals and humans by the bite of an infected flea, according to the health department's Web site. Symptoms among humans include high fever, chills, headache, severe fatigue and tender or swollen lymph glands.

Tooke said authorities have begun spraying in the area to kill the infected fleas.





RELATED STORIES:
RELATED SITES:
• El Paso County Department of Health and Environment
• ScienceNet - Bubonic Plague
• CDC - Human Plague -- United States, 1993-1994

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