Serologic Survey of Plague in Animals, Western Iran

摘要

To the Editor: Plague has been one of the most devastating infectious diseases in human history. The etiologic agent, Yersinia pestis, primarily affects rodents and is usually transmitted to humans through infective flea bites. Endemic plague foci result from circulation of the plague bacillus in its rodent reservoir, the source of human plague cases (1). Carnivores such as dogs and foxes, which prey on rodents and eat their fresh carcasses, are valuable sentinel animals for plague serosurveillance in disease-endemic foci, although their infections are usually asymptomatic (2,3).