Documented cases of human death from
sylvatic plague in Canada demonstrate the risk posed by contact with infected wildlife.
Sylvatic plague is still a threat, and ranchers still don't want too many prairie dogs on their land.
Although some of these wild ferret populations have been threatened by
sylvatic plague, management efforts designed to reduce flea disease vectors at these sites are in place.
Mollison and Levin (36) described circumstances under which diseases like
sylvatic plague could be maintained in a colony.
Colonies in the northern High Plains suffered an outbreak of
sylvatic plague in 2003 and had lost an estimated 1,050 ha of BTPDs by May 2004.
Black-tailed prairie dogs have experienced severe population declines as a result of government extermination programs, poisoning, shooting, outbreaks of
sylvatic plague, and loss of habitat (Hoogland, 1995).
Washington, August 4 (ANI): A new oral vaccine against
sylvatic plague is showing significant promise in the laboratory as a way to protect prairie dogs and may eventually protect endangered black-footed ferrets who now get the disease by eating infected prairie dogs.
Over the past century, prairie dogs, along with ferrets, were vastly reduced in number by the conversion of native prairie habitats to cropland, the poisoning of prairie dogs to reduce forage competition with domestic livestock, and a non-native disease (
sylvatic plague).
Prairie dog populations declined as people tried to eradicate them and diseases such as
sylvatic plague swept the West.
During the 20th century, the species was eradicated from much of that range by shooting and poisoning; more recently,
sylvatic plague has decimated their numbers.