You’re thinking of Hanta virus. Plague here is the old fashioned variety carried by fleas from rodents. Usually a family pet gets them from a dead ground squirrel or sod poodle. Had a death a couple miles away a year or so ago.
Well, I know the locals where I once lived quit trading in pine nuts. I was told because of rats transmitting Plague.
You may be correct that I was not accurate enough in my description.
In Central TX, this has been the “year of the rat”. 1st wet year after 4 year “great drought”. Huge cricket and insect crop, explosion of pasture overgrowth. Huge explosion of animal life, quail (smile), wild turkey, wild hogs, rats, squirrels (tree rats) and mice.
When we were planting one of our wheat patches this season we found huge holes dug all over one farm. Then we saw the culprit, the largest and fattest coyote I’ve ever seen. Looks like he was feeding exclusively on rats.
We have been fighting a hard battle in our shops at the farm controlling rats & mice. We are in the seed business and the screenings draw the vermin.
We keep liquid rat poison in the shops and closed barns and have recently been putting out wheat screenings mixed with cement. The cement really does a number on the rats. And it is cheap.
I killed one 2 days ago and it was as large as a small cotton tail rabbit. And it was fat, probaly feeding on crickets.
They have done great damage to our tractor wiring. Everyone is fighting to keep them out of farm equipment. Nasty destructive critters.