Ying Bai Kenneth L. Gage Jack F. Cully Jr. Bala Thiagarajan 2008 <p><span>Rodents (and their fleas) that are associated with prairie dogs are considered important for the maintenance and transmission of the bacterium (</span><i>Yersinia pestis</i><span>) that causes plague. Our goal was to identify rodent and flea species that were potentially involved in a plague epizootic in black-tailed prairie dogs at Thunder Basin National Grassland. We collected blood samples and ectoparasites from rodents trapped at off- and on-colony grids at Thunder Basin National Grassland between 2002 and 2004. Blood samples were tested for antibodies to </span><i>Y. pestis</i><span> F-1 antigen by a passive hemagglutination assay, and fleas were tested by a multiplex polymerase chain reaction, for the presence of the plague bacterium. Only one of 1,421 fleas, an </span><i>Oropsylla hirsuta</i><span> collected in 2002 from a deer mouse, </span><i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i><span>, tested positive for </span><i>Y. pestis</i><span>. Blood samples collected in summer 2004 from two northern grasshopper mice, </span><i>Onychomys leucogaster</i><span>, tested positive for </span><i>Y. pestis</i><span> antibodies. All three positive samples were collected from on-colony grids shortly after a plague epizootic occurred. This study confirms that plague is difficult to detect in rodents and fleas associated with prairie dog colonies, unless samples are collected immediately after a prairie dog die-off.</span></p> application/pdf 10.7589/0090-3558-44.3.731 en Wildlife Disease Association Prevalence of <i>Yersinia pestis</i> in rodents and fleas associated with black-tailed prairie dogs (<i>Cynomys ludovicianus</i>) at Thunder Basin National Grassland, Wyoming article