Wild Felids as Hosts for Human Plague, Western United States

Abstract

Plague seroprevalence was estimated in populations of pumas and bobcats in the western United States. High levels of exposure in plague-endemic regions indicate the need to consider the ecology and pathobiology of plague in nondomestic felid hosts to better understand the role of these species in disease persistence and transmission.

Keywords

• Disease ecology
• Lynx rufus
• Puma concolor
• Yersinia pestis
• zoonoses
• plague