A dog potentially exposed more than 100 people to black plague in Colorado

Enlarge / The dog is thought to have caught the plague from a dead prairie dog. (credit: Getty | Craig F. Walker)
At least 116 people and 46 animals in Colorado were potentially exposed to the black plague after veterinarians struggled to diagnose a critically ill dog back in 2017.
The unusual case prompted health experts to issue an equally unusual—and perhaps startling—warning. That is, that dogs in the US may contract the deadly bacterial infection at any time of the year, and the signs may be hard to spot.
“[P]neumonic plague, although rare, should be considered in dogs that have fever and respiratory signs with potential exposure in disease-endemic areas, regardless of season and lobar [lung] distribution,” the Colorado health experts concluded. They published details of the case and their warning this week in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
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