[Myrddin]

My wife and I went camping in Idyllwild, CA before hiking up near San Jacinto mountain. In the morning we discovered signs nailed to the trees in our campsite warning of plague infected squirrels. We had just been feeding the squirrels the night before. We moved on to Lake Elsinore instead.

My wife contracted a case of "plague" from the Pasteurella pestis (aka Yersinia pestis) minor organism. Her Red Tail hawk had picked it up while hunting in the field. The hawk passed it to my wife. Both were treated and recovered. We were lucky that the veterinarian diagnosed the plague infection in time for rapid treatment. A hot strain of the "real thing" can kill in hours. Especially if passed as pneumonic plague from coughing/sputum vs rat flea bites.

[srmorton]

The genus of the organism, while formerly Pasteurella, is now Yersinea. It was moved to the Enterobacteriaceae (the family to which most normal intestinal gram negative rods belong) because it ferments glucose and is oxidase negative. Most members of the genus Pasteurella are oxidase positive.