In response, officials have shut down Denver-area wildlife areas.
The area’s black-tailed prairie dog population were introduced to the plague by infected fleas. The fear is that these fleas could transmit the plague to dogs, cats, and humans.
The plague is loaded with a sense of fear after being the cause of the Black Death which killed anywhere from 75 to 200 million people in the 1300’s. These days the plague can be treated with antibiotics.
Officials in Colorado have responded to the threat by spraying insecticide around prairie dog tunnels. Kill the fleas, kill the transmission.
