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With respect, m'friend -- no species of rat has ever ''spread'' any sort of plague. However, rats do and always have served as primary transport vectors FOR the little critters that DO spread almost all strains of plague, to wit, fleas. The plague flea (there are numerous different known species/sub-species, if you care -- taxonomic arguments rage on this topic) that carries Yersinia pestis, the infamous plague bacterium. will bite ANY warm-blooded critter -- rabbits, hedgehogs, horses, pigs, humans, even likely enough cold-blooded pols such as Hitlery.

What medical science knows is that the bacterium Y. pestis is generally benign, a nothing bacterium among millions in the world, that happens to live, under normal conditions, in the guts of various species of fleas. Ordinarily, this bacterium just sits around and minds its own business.

What medical science does NOT know is what event/sequence of events/dietary change/other factors cause one of Y. pestis' genes, specifically the 'hemin storage' gene, to switch on. When this gene does switch on, Y. pestis becomes incredibly virulent; somehow multiplies its rate of reproduction almost factorially over time, a rate that occurs almost nowhere else in nature. The flea's natural metabolism can't cope with this gigantic expansion of an alien organism w/in its body.

As one of many results thereof, the flea loses part or all of its ability to digest food, and -- somewhat similarly to a drunk who wants to puke out the contents of his/her/its stomach (this comparison is of course not precise) -- tries to disgorge the too-numerous bacteria into the flesh of other critters by biting any critter that has warm blood...wups, that means you and me included.

You could kill every rat, every member of any species or sub-species or variant of rat, in the world tomorrow morning, and burn the carcasses...and you would still have the occasional plague outbreak for as long a period as you would care to consider.

My apologies to all biopathologists for any and all misstatements/omissions in the process dispersion above regarding Y. pestis. Most of the above is accurate; I've doubtless omitted or poorly explained one or another significant features of the process.

Nonetheless, RATS aren't the villains, necessarily, in the dispersal of plague; they're just a common transport vector for the spread of the disease. Blaming rats (and I've no love at all for rats, btw, so pls spare me the 'Willard' comments) is just blaming the messenger for something not in its/their control.