Pet owners warned after plague — PLAGUE! — confirmed in Colorado

[Earthnut]

Pet owners warned after plague ~ PLAGUE! ~ confirmed in Colorado

https://news.yahoo.com/plague-boulder-colorado-124423854.html

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News

August 21, 2014 8:44 AM

Yahoo News

Health officials in Colorado have issued a warning to residents in Boulder County that the bubonic plague has been found in fleas taken from a prairie dog.

Notices posted on fence posts around a 44-acre open-space property say that "wild rodents and other small mammals" including squirrels, prairie dogs and rabbits "may be infected with plague."

The signs recommend people treat their pets with anti-flea medication, avoid open spaces where the plague has been confirmed and avoid contact "with all sick or dead rodents." Other advice:

· Avoid fleas. Protect pets with flea powder or drops, or a new flea collar. Keep pets on a leash and out of wild rodent habitats.

· Avoid all contact with wild rodents, including squirrels; do not feed or handle them.

· Prevent rodent infestations around your house. Clear plants and material away from outside walls, reduce access to food items and set rodent traps.

· Treat known rodent sites around your home with flea powder or a suitable insecticide.

According to KUSA-TV, it is the first confirmed case of plague in Boulder County since 2011, when a domesticated cat and a dead squirrel tested positive for it. According to the Boulder County Public Health Department, two squirrels had been tested for plague earlier this year, but those tests came back negative.

"The fleas don't travel large distances, so it's nothing we're seeing spread or becoming an epidemic," Lane Drager, consumer protection coordinator for Boulder County Public Health, told the Daily Camera. "It's confined to that one area. But if pets are going into these areas, they are risking exposure for themselves and for those pet owners."

Still, locals should be on the lookout for symptoms of plague ("sudden onset of fever and chills, severe headache, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, general feeling of systemic (whole body) illness, extreme pain and swelling in the lymph node") and seek immediate treatment.

Plague can be treated with antibiotics, the officials added, but treatment is “most successful when the disease can be diagnosed quickly."

[Walkabout]

Scattered cases of plague in humans occur every year since the west was settled by whites . Unless the number exceeds the average for an area, it rarely makes even the local news, unless some bored reporter decides to do the chicken little dance. Prairie dogs and other flea carrying mammals were exterminated in an attempt to eliminate the source, however upsetting the balance of nature caused even more problems. Some states now protect these animals as the good they do , far out way the bad. The same thing is happening right now in the waters off the coast of Australia with a massive shark 'cull' , only time will tell this will upset the ecosystem of our oceans. Disease and parasites are everywhere so unless you want to live in a plastic bubble , educate yourself and take precautions but realize its apart of life on this planet. And no one lives forever.

[seesthru]

Plague lives out west. It's carried by fleas in the mammal population, most specifically prairie dogs. but in other critters too. It's treatable with antibiotics. It' snot quite as scary as it used to be. But the name, still instills fear! But I simply repeat the article here. Sorry! Anyway, I'd be more scared of Hantavirus than plague.

[Earthnut]

Mankind and all of his/her pollution is our biggest threat...which of course includes roaches. Scientists say they survived the extinction of dinosaurs, and what is interesting, recent genetic evidence strongly suggests that termites evolved directly from 'true' cockroaches. Yahoo Answers said "The group as a whole is extremely old; fossil evidence indicates its extreme abundance during the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago." So, my question is, what is their purpose for existence? Yuck!

[Walkabout]

They first are an important source of food. Almost pure protein. Many animals rely them and similar animals [ ants and termites] as their main food . If roaches didn't carry so many diseases they might one day be used to end world hunger. One day they be bred commercially for that purpose. Thank goodness for mustard and ketchup !

[Earthnut]

Found this interesting article on that very subject ~

Can We End Hunger by Eating Bugs?

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/can-we-end-hunger-by-eating-bugs/275997/

Here's on paragraph that has a lot to say ~

What's surprising is how enduring the human taste for Insecta remains. According to the FAO, more than two billion people -- 30 percent of humanity --already supplement their diet with insects. And given the number of insects out there -- 1 million distinct species have already been identified and nearly 2,000 proven edible -- diners have a crunchy smorgasbord to choose from. "The most commonly eaten insect groups," we learn, "are beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, cicadas, leaf and planthoppers, scale insects and true bugs, termites, dragonflies and flies."

[Libby]

It's about ecosystems being disturbed. A similar thing happened regarding Lyme disease. That is carried by ticks, which are carried by deer (with mice as an intermediary). When deforestation was carried out to clear the land for agriculture, deer populations increased, because more open spaces meant they could more easily evade their predators. But when suburbia expanded into those areas, the ticks found a new population of victims.

We do get Lyme disease here in the UK, but quite rarely. But that's because we cleared most of our forests a very long time ago.

I'm not feeling at all enamoured of the idea of cockroaches as food, or any of the other bugs from Earthnut's post. I know, logically, they're packed full of protein, but my gut (which is currently being rather problematic) definitely says "no".

[Earthnut]

It's more then just my gut that is saying no to eating bugs. I understand they are full of protein, but.....my eyes and the thought of it kinda keep me from it. Naturally, if I were starving to death I'd probably eat some, but they would have to be cooked and not actually look like a bug. And, there is no way I could pick one from the list. If I didn't like a tender, juicy, steak every once in awhile, lobster, crab, and bacon bits for flavor in dishes, I'd probably be a vegetarian.

[Libby]

I could possibly become a vegetarian; I'd certainly like to eat more vegetables and pulses and grains than I currently do. I do understand that one of the defining moments in the history of homo sapiens was the regular acquisition of protein from meat, hence us being omnivores.

But protein from bugs! I'm not too fond of mushrooms, even less about quorn, which is derived from fungi. All I can think is that fungi grow from dead things, which, ok, is mostly from dead wood and so on, but neither fungi nor bugs care about what they get their protein from. At least with a good steak, I know the protein mostly came from grass.

[seesthru]

Bugs, ick!