Plague is a bacterial (Yersinia pestis) disease that causes epizootic die-offs in black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) populations in the North American Great Plains. Through their grazing and burrowing, prairie dogs modify vegetation and landscape structure on their colonies in ways that affect other grassland species. Plague epizootics on prairie dog colonies can have indirect effe...

Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of plague, has only recently evolved from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. hfq deletion caused severe growth restriction at 37 degrees C in Y. pestis but not in Y. pseudotuberculosis. Strains from all epidemic plague biovars were similarly affected, implicating Hfq, and likely small RNAs (sRNAs), in the unique biology of the plague bacillus.

An increasing trend in the frequency of human bubonic plague cases in the United States, the principal sources of human infection, and emerging control techniques are described. Development of an integrated control program involving public health education, citizen participation in plague surveillance, and insecticidal control of flea vectors in response to evidence of plague and potential huma...

THE MOST famous paintings and designs depicting bubonic plague have at times been criticized for a certain lack of clinical veracity, because they do not show lesions which would make recognition of the disease possible.' One can, of course, look approvingly at a plague bubo prominently displayed, admittedly on the thigh instead of in the groin, in respresentations of St. Roch,2 one of the patr...

Plague is a disease that has been present for thousands of years and described since the earliest medical accounts. It occurs today worldwide, and may present in a variety of clinical forms. Bubonic disease, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague are seen in addition to a number of other less common manifestations. As an agent of bioterrorism,Yersinia pestis could pose an extreme threat if rel...

An outbreak of plague occurred in the town of Saklaspur, Hassan District (Mysore State), in March 1946. The first case was an imported one, not immediately recognized as plague. While suspicion was lurking in our minds that it might be plague, cases of ratfall occurred in the town and splenic smears of such rats were positive for B. testis. This finding and occurrence of other cases of human pl...

Of the 3 major factors (habitat loss, poisoning, and disease) that limit abundance of prairie dogs today, sylvatic plague caused by Yersinia pestis is the 1 factor that is beyond human control. Plague epizootics frequently kill .99% of prairie dogs in infected colonies. Although epizootics of sylvatic plague occur throughout most of the range of prairie dogs in the United States and are well de...

While the safety of the available live plague vaccine EV 76 (Paris) continues to be the subject of further study, the USP formol-killed, virulent Pasteurella pestis (Yersinia pestis) suspension capable of protecting 60% of non-human primates, particularly Hanuman langurs (Presbytis entellus), warrants further clinical tests and field trials. Inoculated in a dosage of 2x10(9) killed plague bacil...

Plague, in the Middle Ages known as Black Death, continues to occur at permanent foci in many countries, in Africa, Asia, South America, and even the USA. During the last years outbreaks were reported from at least 3 geographical areas, in all cases after tens of years without reported cases. The recent human plague outbreaks in Libya and Algeria suggest that climatic and other environmental ch...

Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of the disease plague, has been implicated in three historical pandemics. These include the third pandemic of the 19(th) and 20(th) centuries, during which plague was spread around the world, and the second pandemic of the 14(th)-17(th) centuries, which included the infamous epidemic known as the Black Death. Previous studies have confirmed that Y. pestis ca...