Monday, April 06, 2015

Fleas Test Positive For Plague In Arizona

by JASmius



And, judging by the map above, a baker's-dozen other states:

Arizona officials are taking precautions after finding fleas collected in Picture Canyon northeast of Flagstaff have tested positive for plague.

The Arizona Daily Sun reported Friday that the County Public Health Services District is conducting additional tests and disinfecting prairie dog burrows.

Public health officials collected the fleas around trails in the popular hiking area after noticing some prairie dogs dying off.

The blurb doesn't say what kind of plague is involved, although bubonic plague (the "black death") was imported into Europe from the Far East on fleas that infested rats that infested foreign trading vessels, and the season when it most successfully thrives and spreads is summer, which we are fast approaching.  And did I mention that it wiped out at least half the population of fourteenth-century Europe?

Whether these infected fleas were already here or were imported on the continuing tsunami-like influx of illegal aliens, courtesy of Barack Obama, the bulletin also did not say.  But would it be any great surprise?

1 comment:

Earl Anderson said...

Plague has been endemic to the areas on the map at least since I took my undergrad Mircobiology degree in 1978