[jaydubya]

On the news: An Arizona biologist has died of bubonic plague after performing an autopsy on a mountain lion. I don't think many members of this board perform autopsies, but a bunch of you disassemble deer and whatnot at about this time of the year. The symptoms start off sounding like flu -- which got this biologist sent home. If you develop flu-like symptoms within days of dressing an animal, TELL YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT IT. Give him a chance to help you. Bubonic plague is endemic in almost all mammals in the southwest. It killed between one fourth and one third of the human population in Europe during one epidemic in the 14th Century. It is a horrible way to die, and can be cured rather easily if identified in time.
Jack

[alsaqr]

A few folks in the American west die every year from the plague. The plague is endemic in Mongolia, the Arabian Desert and the American Southwest.

[dispatch55126]

Well, its transmitted by fleas. It your kill looks mangy, I wouldn't touch it. I know in West Virginia, the deer population has black tongue so they can't eat it. We have chronic wasting here but again if it looks sick, it probably is.

[Eagle103]

Around here I'm mostly concerned about deer ticks with Lyme disease. I've seen some hides infested with them. Just have to be careful and check yourself and those around you and go to the doc for antibiotics if anything gets stuck. My cousin got Lyme during bowhunting season a few years ago when it was less prevalent and was misdiagnosed until it was too late and got into his joints. Not a good deal at all.

[dispatch55126]

Didn't a gator QB get Lyme disease a few years back and go nuts before he was diagnosed?

[dispatch55126]

Eagle, where do you hunt. I took this 8 pointer around Osakis this year. It was all of a 15 minute hunt. :fire:

[Eagle103]

dispatch55126, I'm up in the Park Rapids, Detroit Lakes area. Hunting has been very good for my son and I as well. We shot 2 nice bucks (both tall 8 points) and 4 does between the two of us this year.
It's nice to get your deer but 15 minutes isn't enough time in the field. You need to start passing on anything smaller than a 10 point.:D

[dispatch55126]

Lat year my MN 91/30, this year my 20ga bolt action, next year my Hawkens ML.

[Twig]

Sounds like you had a good hunt Eagle103. I hunt near Perham 4 bucks and 3 does for us one more day to find another doe. There was 4 of us hunting so the freezer will be nice and full this year.

[Double Naught Spy]

Dead animals can getya

No, but a live bacterium can.

Well, its transmitted by fleas.

Fleas are the most common form of transmission, but contact with bodily fluids such as blood, organs, etc. of an animal with plague can also result in transmission.

It your kill looks mangy, I wouldn't touch it.

Mange or mangy appearance has nothing to do with plague. They can co-occur or occur separately. Like plague, mange is due to a parasitic infestation, but of mites, not bacterium or fleas.

[wolf_from_wv]

Bubonic Plague from Direct Exposure to a Naturally Infected Wild Coyote
C. Fordham von Reyn*, Allan M. Barnes, Neil S. Weber, Thomas Quan AND W. J. Dean
Bureau of Epidemiology, Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, Plague Branch, Vector-Borne Diseases Division, Bureau of Laboratories, Center for Disease Control, P.O. Box 2087, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522, Insect and Rodent Control Section, Environmental Improvement Agency, New Mexico Health and Social Services Department, Post Office Box 2348, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87503, and Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131

An 11-year-old boy developed axillary bubonic plague and plague meningitis 3 days after skinning a dead coyote near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The coyote carcass was recovered 10 days later, and Yersinia pestis was isolated from spleen and marrow of the animal. This is the first report of human plague from exposure to a coyote. A review of experimental and epidemiologic studies suggests that severe plague infection in members of the family Canidae is unusual, and that the risk of acquiring plague from direct contact with coyote tissues is minimal. Nevertheless, certain precautions are outlined for persons working with wild coyotes.

Accepted for publication November 29, 1975.


* EIS Officer, located in the New Mexico Health and Social Services Department. Present address: Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA 02215.

http://www.ajtmh.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/4/626