Yes, they can. It is the number one reason for fishing for prairie dogs. Here it is from the web site.
Now all patriotic Americans can do their part to help stop terrorism. These cute little rodents are known to be carriers of the bubonic plague, the Black Death. This plague was responsible for the deaths of over twenty five million people a few short centuries ago. Imagine if a terror group found a way to extract the bacterium named Yersinia pestis from a prairie dog? We would no longer be concerning ourselves with the likes of anthrax or even chronic wasting disease.