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.
Highlights
Plague seroprevalence was estimated in populations of pumas and bobcats in the western United States
Seroprevalence rates in the Colorado sample areas were 21% (Front Range) and 46% (Western Slope) respectively, a higher proportion than expected given the severe disease seen in plague infections in some domestic cats [3]
During 1957–2004, a total of 419 human plague cases were documented in the United States, of which 83% were from this region [14]
Summary
Plague seroprevalence was estimated in populations of pumas and bobcats in the western United States. We examined plague exposure in populations of bobcats and pumas in California and Colorado. This gave us an opportunity to evaluate Y. pestis seroprevalence in multiple difficult-to-sample, plague-susceptible felid species across a wide geographic area. The Study We collected samples from 119 pumas and 212 bobcats (Table 1) in 3 locations in southern California and 2 locations in western and north-central Colorado (Figure) from autumn 2002 through summer 2008.
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