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Fleas in two Arizona counties tested positive for the Bubonic plague — the same disease that killed millions of people in the 14th century throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe, public health officials say. Navajo County public health officials announced Friday that fleas collected near the town of Taylor tested positive for Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes the Bubonic plague, the Associated Press reports. The announcement came one week after Coconino County officials first discovered fleas in the area found to be carrying the plague. KNXV reports that Coconino County officials first discovered the plague-infested fleas in the Red Lake...

TAYLOR, Ariz. (3TV/CBS5) — Health officials are urging people to take precautions after a second Arizona county in two weeks confirmed that fleas in the area have tested positive for plague. The announcement by Navajo County Public Health officials on Friday comes one week after Coconino County officials found prairie dogs in the area to be carrying fleas with the plague -- the infectious disease infamous for killing millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages. The fleas in Navajo County were found near the town of Taylor. Health officials have notified the residents whose property will be treated. The area...

For years, Naropa has battled some 150 persistent prairie dogs over 2.5 acres of prime real estate on its Nalanda campus. One side wants to build more classrooms, the other more tunnels. Davis recalled one of her professors asking, "I wonder what we'd do if we ever got termites?"

This afternoon a district court in Utah held that the federal prohibition against “taking” Utah prairie dogs — listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act — exceeds the scope of federal power under the Commerce and Necessary and Proper clauses. Here is how Judge Dee Benson summarized his conclusion in People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Although the Commerce Clause authorizes Congress to do many things, it does not authorize Congress to regulate takes of a purely intrastate species that has no substantial effect on interstate commerce. Congress similarly lacks authority...

A new report has concluded that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) former boss, Julie A. MacDonald interfered in scores of Endangered Species Act decisions — including one related to the Gunnison's prairie dog found in parts of northern New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. During her tenure, FWS reversed a finding by its scientists that the species may warrant protection. Last month's report by the Interior Department's inspector general raises questions about whether MacDonald single-handedly doomed the prairie dog's endangered status or if other people were involved. Either way, what's clear from the report is that MacDonald repeatedly stepped...

GREEN RIVER -- The prairie dog rises above its burrow on the high plains of southern Wyoming and takes a casual look around. Seconds later, the animal disappears in an explosion of blood and dirt. The self-described "shortgrass sniper" dressed in camouflage and orange chuckles for the camera and gets ready to fire again. With thousands of hits on YouTube, this popular prairie dog video by Colorado hunter Jim Bowman advises hunters to get ready for the upcoming prairie dog killing contest in southern Wyoming's Carbon County. The controversial, fifth annual, three-day "There Goes the Neighborhood" prairie dog killing contest...

Explosive devices can be used to kill prairie dogs, the Colorado Wildlife Commission decided Thursday - giving farmers one more tool to get rid of the burrowing animals. "I'm tickled pink," said Matt Fickes, a Sterling farmer who has sought to use the devices. "I've got prairie dogs so thick I can't see straight. "Ever see that Star Trek episode, 'The Trouble With Tribbles'? It's like that," he said. "They are born pregnant." Landowners have been allowed to shoot, vacuum, poison and drown prairie dogs - but not blow them up. Now they'll be permitted to use hand-held devices, such...

As city expands into their space, prairie dogs find backyard homes Meet the Neighbors BY ROBIN BRISCOE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL A prairie dog peeks his head from his home while hundreds of his friends and family are cozy within a dirt mound below the earth. "We have got hundreds of them right now," Jim Gerlt, executive pastor at Bacon Heights Baptist Church, said, referring to the prairie dog town spanning 33 acres on the land reserved for the church's new building at 110th Street and Slide Road. "Any time you buy land you're going to have prairie dogs," Gerlt said. "That's just...

Jefferson County health officials have confirmed an outbreak of bubonic plague among prairie dog colonies at C-470 and West Quincy Avenue in the Green Mountain area. There were no reports of human cases in the area, but precautions were advised. Pet owners also were advised to avoid contact with any species of wild rodents, especially those appearing sick or dead. The best way to prevent plague is to control the presence of rodents and fleas in and around the home, health officials said. Dogs and cats should be confined so they cannot prey on infected rodents. If precautions are taken,...

Lubbock Lake to do stand-in honors for Prairie Dog Town BY RAY WESTBROOK AVALANCHE-JOURNAL When Texas sends a Travel/Tex photographer to the Lubbock Lake Landmark on Tuesday, the massive mammoth statue on a hill by the Nash Interpretive Center will be bypassed. Instead, the lens will zoom in to ground level for a close-up shot of a twitchy prairie dog whose bark is worse than its bite. Brian Thomas, director of communications for the Lubbock Convention and Visitors Bureau, would have volunteered Prairie Dog Town for the pictures, which are designed to fill a 30-second clip on a Web site...

PIERRE - No more prairie dogs in South Dakota have been found with plague since a prairie dog infected with plague was discovered last month in western Custer County , according to state Game, Fish & Parks officials. GF&P field personnel have been asked to check the area for plague, said George Vandel, the department's chief wildlife biologist. "It's not difficult to know when plague is in a prairie dog town," Vandel said. "The numbers just go in the toilet." Plague tests will also be done on coyotes, badgers and fox taken in predator control activities, he said. Officials said...

State agriculture officials on Friday temporarily banned the transportation of six more animal species - including rabbits - to stop the potential spread of monkeypox into Michigan. Imports of prairie dogs and Gambian rats were banned Wednesday. The order issued Friday added brush-tailed porcupines, dormice, rope squirrels, striped mice, tree squirrels and rabbits to the embargo list. "Although we have not confirmed monkeypox illness in people in Michigan, we have several situations we are investigating," said Janet Olszew-ski, director of the Michigan Department of Community Health. Under the order, the animals "cannot be transported, displayed, sold or in any other...

CHICAGO -- State officials have tracked down all but two prairie dogs sold to Illinois buyers by a suburban Chicago business where the weeklong outbreak of monkeypox originated, an Agriculture Department spokesman said Friday. Spokesman Jeff Squibb said officials have located two of four Gambian giant rats -- the animal believed to have infected the prairie dogs with monkeypox -- sold within Illinois by the same business. He said they continue to search for the other two, which were given away by the buyer. In all, Squibb said officials have tracked down 19 of 21 prairie dogs sold within Illinois...

OK, it's nearly summer, and it's been really wet, so we're getting our annual fix of stories about how there will be more mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus this year. This comes at a time when we're still fighting the spread of SARS and we're still wary that some of those palsied cattle in Canada might spread mad cow disease our way. Now comes the latest pestilence, which erupted over the weekend and was previously unknown in our part of the world: dozens of people in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana have contracted an affliction called ``monkeypox virus.'' Health officials say...

Health officials are concerned that monkeypox, a little-known disease from African rain forests that has infected some Midwesterners could wreak havoc now that it has entered new territory. "Whenever you hear about a new virus being introduced into an ecosystem where it's not been present before, you have to be very, very concerned about the public health threat," Dr. Stephen Ostroff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Authorities in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana are investigating at least 33 possible cases of monkeypox among people who have come into contact with prairie dogs. The patients are recovering,...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Officials in three states tried on Monday to track down pet prairie dogs believed spreading "monkeypox," a smallpox-like illness not seen before in the Western Hemisphere that may have infected 37 people. Only six of the victims were being treated in hospitals, officials said, and they were expected to recover with bed rest. The disease, caused by monkeypox virus, is not believed to spread person-to-person. But in light of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome scare and an approaching summer season when mosquito-borne West Nile virus was likely to again pose a deadly threat, health officials were moving...

Monkeypox Virus Spreads Across Upper Midwest Officials Warn Public To Avoid Ill Prairie Dogs POSTED: 10:09 a.m. EDT June 9, 2003 Tests have confirmed that the disease that has sickened pet prairie dogs and numerous humans is the monkeypox virus. MONKEYPOX CDC Info.WHO Info.Guidelines For Vets, Pet Owners And it's spreading across the upper Midwest, causing an outbreak of rashes, fevers and chills in people. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the prairie dogs likely were infected by a giant Gambian rat at a suburban Chicago pet distributor. Health officials have confirmed that four Wisconsin people...

Monkeypox virus underscores danger of having exotic pets Two new cases of illness confirmed By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and SARAH CARR mmarchione@journalsentinel.com Last Updated: June 8, 2003 The human monkeypox outbreak, likely spread by prairie dogs via imported African rats, is the latest example of a danger that health officials have warned of for years: Exotic pets often bring exotic health threats. Deadly infections, unusual injuries and people getting bored with or overwhelmed by owning such pets and releasing them into the wild have been reported, health and agriculture officials say. Importing super-exotic pets into the United States, such as Gambian...

Health officials are investigating at least 29 suspected cases of people in three Midwestern states who may have been stricken in the outbreak so far, which state and federal health officials are urgently working to contain. State and federal authorities are tracing about 200 animals that were distributed in 15 states by an exotic pet dealer in Illinois. The dealer sold rodents known as prairie dogs, which are believed to be the source of the outbreak. In addition to trying to prevent more infections, officials are worried that the animals could spread the disease to wild rabbits and other indigenous...

Monkeypox, a viral disease related to smallpox but less infectious and deadly, has been detected for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Three Midwestern states, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, reported at least 19 monkeypox cases over the weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Wisconsin reported the vast majority, 17, with Illinois and Indiana reporting one each. The patients ranged in age from 4 to 48 years, and all had had contact with direct or close contact with ill prairie dogs, which have become a common household pet. Several patients work for veterinarians or pet stores that...