This plague in Colorado and on the Arizona/New Mexico borders has been going on for many years.
I can recall 25 years of hearing the reports and being warned by the Arizona health department.
We have plague reports about our multitudes of prairie dogs here in South Dakota too. My 90 year old Dad (grew up on a farm in depression-era western Kansas) says the plague has always "plagued" the prairie dogs. Nothing new under the sun.
Yep and in other states, too.