Plague

This infection, caused by a bacteria, Yersinia pestis, occurs naturally in a number of wild rodents including prairie dogs in well defined areas of the southwestern United States.

It is transmitted from rodent to rodent and rodent to man through the bite of a flea.

Occasionally a domestic cat will obtain the disease from prey rodents and pass it on to their owners. Yersinia was responsible for the scourge of the Middle Ages, bubonic plague.