Prairie Dog Pals

Dedicated to the Preservation of Prairie Dogs and their Habitat

Prairie Dog Talking Points

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  • Prairie dogs are a keystone species with up to 205 associated vertebrates (9 considered dependent) living with them, using their burrows, or predating upon them
  • There are 5 species of prairie dogs. The ones in Albuquerque are Gunnison’s, the others include Mexican, Utah, white and black tailed.
  • Gunnison’s prairie dogs hibernate during the winter months.
  • Over the last 100 years prairie dogs have been reduced to 1% of their former range and 2% of their population.
  • Some of the species are listed under the Endangered Species Act. Others are being considered for listing.
  • New Mexico has the smallest remaining acreage of prairie dogs.
  • Prairie dogs are territorial and will remain in or near their ancestral habitat if at all possible. The prairie dogs you see here in Albuquerque are the remnants of vast prairie dog towns that existed for hundreds of years.
  • Prairie dogs live an average of 3-5 years in the wild.
  • Prairie dogs are annual breeders. 50% of females over 2 years of age will breed and produce an average of 4 pups.
  • Pups are usually born in early May and will emerge from their burrows after about thirty days.
  • Prairie dogs have the most complex language of any animal ever studied.
  • They have over 200 words and can form sentences identifying intruders by color, size and type of risk.
  • Burrows are complex with a different area for each function of life. There are living chambers, sleeping and nesting rooms, a food storage area,
  • toilet rooms, and flood chambers. The burrows themselves generally include a second entrance or escape way, air chambers, and listening posts in addition to the main entrance.
  • As with humans, prairie dogs are the victims of plague. Virus carrying fleas are brought into the colony by wild animals or off leash cats or dogs.
  • As they have no immunity to the plague they will die within days.
  • Poisoning prairie dogs in both cruel and ineffective. The poison causes a slow agonizing death that may take up to three days.
  • A mature colony tends to expand at approximately 2% annually. A poisoned colony can expand at an annual rate of 70%. Additionally the poison can pose a danger to humans, cats, dogs, and other animals in the area.

Hantavirus

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Prairie dogs are not known to contract or transmit Hantavirus. It is only associated with deer mice (Peromyscus spp.), and some closely related species of rodents in the family Muridae. Prairie dogs are in an entirely different family of rodents, Sciuridae, and there are no known associations of hantavirus with prairie dogs and that association is not considered likely given that these species are not closely related.

Hantavirus is in our environment all the time, and we are probably exposed to minute amounts on a regular basis. It takes high concentrations of the virus in the air for someone to catch it. The primary time you should be concerned about Hantavirus is when you are cleaning (stirring up dust) in a closed-confined space where there is minimal air space, where small mouse droppings are present. The classic situation is when someone is cleaning an old closet or garage with a broom and the place has lots of droppings from deer mice. The best thing to do in that case is open the doors, wet the surface, and wear a mask. A full respiratory mask is required for protection from Hantavirus. Most mammalogists are not very concerned about contracting Hantavirus when trapping rodents because they are outdoors, exposed to the open air.

For more information visit this site.

Tularemia

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What is Tularemia?

Tularemia (also known as rabbit fever or deerfly fever) is an infectious disease in ticks and rabbits that is caused by a bacterium (Francisella tularensis). The disease was first described in Japan in 1837. Its name relates to the description in 1911 of a plague-like in ground squirrels in Tulare county, California (hence the name tularemia) and the subsequent work done by Dr. Edward Francis.

Tularemia occurs throughout North America and in many parts of Europe and Asia. Francisella tularensis is found worldwide in over a hundred species of wild animals, birds and insects. Some examples of animals, other than rabbits, that carry tularemia are meadow mice, ground hogs (woodchucks), ground squirrels, tree squirrels, beavers, coyotes, muskrats, opossums, sheep, and various game birds.

There are two common ways that humans can contract tularemia:

  • From the bite of an infected tick, deerfly (Chrysops discalis), or mosquito. When transmitted to humans by insects, exposed body surfaces are bitten, and the on set of pain and fever is sudden.
  • When broken skin (cuts, abrasions) comes into direct contact with an infected rabbit carcass (namely rabbit species of the genus Sylvilagus which are the cottontails).

Less common means of spreading the disease are drinking contaminated water, inhaling dust from contaminated soil, or handling contaminated pelts or paws of animals. Human-to-human transmission of tularemia is uncommon.

What are the clinical features or symptoms of tularemia?

In humans, tularemia may appear in two forms depending on how a patient contracted the disease. The most common form is usually acquired through the bite of an infected tick (especially wood ticks and deer ticks) or from contact with infected rabbits. Patients will develop an ulcer at the site of infection and lymph glands become inflamed and swollen. Severe fever and flu-like symptoms may accompany the ulcer or lesion. Symptoms start to show within 1-14 days after contracting the disease, with 3-5 days being most common. The fever generally lasts for 3 to 6 weeks if no type of antibiotic therapy is used to combat the bacteria. Patients with the less common form of tularemia, which occurs mainly after inhalation of bacteria, typically experience sudden chills, fever, weight loss, abdominal pains, tiredness, and headaches. Patients with this form of tularemia may develop an unusual pneumonia that can be fatal.

Symptoms of the disease in a rabbit are a white spotted liver, swollen spleen, and an ulcerated or raw area about 1⁄4 inch in diameter which is where the animal was bitten by a tick or deer fly and thus infected.

How is tularemia transmitted to humans through wild game?

Reports of tularemia outbreaks indicate two primary modes of disease transmission. An increase in the number of reported cases in the eastern and midwestern United States during fall and winter coincides with hunting season when hunters are skinning rabbits. In the southwestern and western United States, the incidence of tularemia is highest during summer months due to tick bites.

The risk of contracting tularemia from rabbits is greatest when handling rabbits after the hunt during the cleaning process. Hunters skinning rabbits are advised to wear protective rubber gloves to reduce the risk of contracting the bacteria that cause tularemia when broken skin (cuts, scratches, openwounds, abrasions) comes into contact with an infected carcass or alive, infected rabbit.

Other than hunters, who else may be at risk for illness from tularemia?

Approximately 150-300 tularemia cases are reported in the United States annually, with a majority of those from Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. The frequency of tularemia has dropped markedly over the last 50 years and there has been a shift from winter disease (usually from rabbits) to summer disease (more likely from ticks). The bacteria F. tularensis is a hazard to laboratory staff that work closely with rabbits. Matter of fact, nearly all cases reported each year are by people that receive the bacterial disease from a tick bite rather than from cleaning rabbits. Note: as few as 5-10 bacteria can result in disease. Others at risk may include timber industry personnel, outdoor enthusiasts, as well as those who work, play, or live in tick-infested regions during summer months.

As recently as 1984, 20 people from the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Indian reservations in west-central South Dakota were diagnosed with tularemia. Tularemia was spread through these two reservations by dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) that carried the bacteria.

Prairie Dogs and Plague

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PRAIRIE DOGS DO NOT TRANSMIT DISEASE TO HUMANS!

In the wild, prairie dogs are the victims of only one disease, plague. Plague was introduced to the west by settlers near the turn of the century and, “…we gave it to the prairie dogs”(1). It was first discovered in New Mexico in 1938(2). This non-native disease is spread by fleas and is carried into prairie dog towns by other animals such as mice, coyotes, and domestic dogs and cats. All mammals are capable of contracting plague. Once the fleas are present in a prairie dogs colony, the entire town will perish within days, and individuals live for only a few hours.

Thus, if plague is present, there are no active prairie dogs within about one week’s time. Plague has not been documented in the City of Albuquerque. It is difficult for urban prairie dogs to contract plague since the urbanization limits the number of mammals that frequent the colony.

Proven cases of human plague contracted from prairie dogs are virtually non-existent. The Centers for Disease Control and the department of health continually reinforce this fact. The CDC’s official position on destroying Prairie Dogs to control plague is, “ We do not recommend routine destruction of prairie dog colonies”(3). One CDC report specifically on plague says, “Plague in Cynomys Gunnisoni (Gunnison’s Prairie Dog) is devastating. Mortality during a plague epizootic typically exceeds 99%. Although mortality is great and flea infection rates may reach tremendous levels, human cases resulting from prairie dog plague are relatively few….and result from direct contact with an infected animal…Opisocrostis spp, (the fleas), maybe reluctant to bite humans”(4).

Cases of people contracting plague from live prairie dogs are non-existent. People who have been known to contract plague from prairie dogs can be traced to handling the corpse of an infected animal (5).

Some states have no record of anyone ever contracting disease from prairie dogs. The chances of contracting plague from a live prairie dog are so infinitesimally slim, it is simply a non-issue. Fleas will only seek a new host if the original host is deceased. For this reason, The Colorado Department of Health states, ...poisoning of burrowing rodents should not be routinely employed because this could release fleas into the environment and cause an increased risk to humans and pets” (6). Poisoning causes fleas to leave prairie dogs and other rodents in their burrows. This is the only time when a human health risk becomes a factor. Common sense points to the fact that having dozens of corpses present in an area is not a healthy environment for human activity. In contrast, everyone who regularly works with prairie dogs is vitally healthy. The writers of this plan have handled thousands of prairie dogs and they are all alive and well today. Nobody who regularly works with prairie dogs has ever suffered health complications of any kind. Though nearly impossible, if plague did strike in our times, plague is not synonymous with death. The disease can be treated with modern antibiotics and recovery rate is high, recovery time fairly brief.

Existing prairie dog colonies in Albuquerque neither have plague or would infect humans. One value of ‘city dogs’ is that if there is a large plague outbreak in an ecologically significant colony, these healthy animals can be reintroduced to prevent the collapse of the ecosystem. Plague can be controlled or prevented by using proper flea powder in prairie dog burrows once or twice per year (7). This practice is common in New Mexico and is generally conducted by the Department of Health or Environmental Divisions.

May we take this opportunity to reinforce the fact that prairie dogs are not able to become infected by or transmit any other disease including rabies or hanta virus. Plague is just another, tremendous threat against the survival of prairie dogs and their ecosystem. Gunnison’s prairie dogs, the variety in Albuquerque, are down to about 2% of their historical range (8) and are under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act (9).

Find out more about the dynamics of a plague outbreak here.

Literature Cited

1. Coniff, Richard 1998. Citing Pape, John. Epidiologist for Co Dept. of Health. Quoted on Wildlife Adventures, “Underdogs, Prairie Dogs Under Attack” Turner Productions, TBS

2. Cully, Jack. 1986 Metapopulation Characteristics of Sylvatic Plague Among Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs In the Moreno Valley, NM.(Citing Webber, 1978) Museum for Southwestern Biology, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

Cully, Jack F., Williams, Elizabeth S. 2001.Interspecific Comparisons of Sylvatic Plague in Prairie Dogs. Journal of Mammalogy. 82: 894-905

3. Reply letter to Prairie Ecosystems regarding official position of the CDC on prairie dogs and plague. Kathleen Orloski, DVM, MS, Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer. April 26, 1995.

4.. Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “Human Plague”, April 8, 2004, Vol. 43, No 13.

5.. Rocky Mountain News Spotlight article, “Dogs of War” quoting John Pape, Infectious Disease Specialist for The Colorado Dept. of Health. May 4, 1998.

6. Colorado Department of Health brochure, “Facts About Plague”, 1993.

7. Department of Health regular practice for controlling fleas. Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and Plains Conservation Center have had tremendous success in controlling the spread of plague to reintroduced prairie dogs through this technique.

8. Knowles, C. 2001. Status of the Gunnison’s prairie dog. FWS & NWF.

9. Forest Guardians. 2004. Petition to List the Gunnison’s Prairie Dog as Threatened or Endangered Throughout its Range. Feb 23, 2004. www.fguardians.org

Prepared by: Prairie Ecosystems

 

Monkey Pox

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monkeygirlSadly, some misguided, misinformed, and malignant individual has been posting signs trying to connect prairie dogs and monkey pox.   Monkey pox, as it is aptly named, comes from African monkeys.   As prairie dogs and monkeys do not inhabit the same habitat, it is unlikely that a wild prairie dog could ever contract the disease under normal circumstances.

Monkey pox reached the United States in 2003, from infected Gambian rats being imported by a less than diligent exotic pet sales house.   The rats infected adjacent, captive prairie dogs, and the disease was transmitted to humans. The USDA stepped in and stopped the pet trade in prairie dogs, a blessing for the prairie dogs, as no longer could unscrupulous people take young from their families for sale.