Gorillas with Ebola, mallards with aspergillosis, and poultry with avian flu.  Crazy diseases seem to be striking animal populations left and right. Now, the University of Wyoming reports that over the past year, mountain lions have been dying from the same disease that killed millions of people during the Middle Ages: bubonic plague. 

The university issued a warning to hunters and cat owners on Thursday after biologists found a dead mother and kitten in northwest Wyoming at the end of October. (Yes, we noticed the seemingly long lag time, too). In the past year, two other mountain lions were found dead from bubonic plague, and several domestic cats tested positive for the disease, professor of veterinary science Ken Mills told Reuters.

Bubonic plague is often spread by fleas but if it reaches an animal’s lungs, it can be spread through coughing or sneezing, he warned.

“Plague is cycling in that area, and the potential is there to infect (domestic) cats. That really would be where exposure to humans would take place,” said Mills.

But all this death and disease talk is getting us down.  Anyone care for a “Ring Around the Rosie” sing along?

Posted by Sarah Parsons on Dec 18, 2006 at 4:58 PM
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