Scary headline of the week

[ericcoleman]

Ok, I know it's probably not that big of a deal ... but ... ya gotta admit ...

Campground closed after bubonic plague strikes rodents

Comments

[blur01.livejournal.com]

So totally not funny!

[ntrlstgrl.livejournal.com]

I spent two summers working as an intern for the National Park Service; one at Devil's Tower National Monument & one at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

At DTNM I was involved with a project that required taking blood from the prairie dogs to be sent off for genetic testing. It wasn't until after we were done (and no, we weren't wearing gloves) that we found out prairie dogs in the western region of the NPS were carrying bubonic plague. The next summer at TRNP one of the prarie dog "towns" was shut off from public viewing because some of the animals were carrying plague.

Imagine looking at your hands and thinking "SHIT I'M GONNA DIE." Of course there's the whole carrier-flea-bites-dirt-disease thing going on, but none of us thought that right away. It was slightly nervewracking to find out we'd been working with possibly (although they were not) contaminated critters!

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the article yet... but maybe if we can get the rats to have the bubonic plague, and the pigeons start feeding on the rats... we can head off the whole bird flu thing.