Bubonic Plague Research Articles

Editor's Note

Editor's Note Wendy Pfeffer This volume of Tenso was produced in 2020, a year that, as I draft these words, augurs to be as weighty as 1347 and 1348 were for the medieval world. The earlier years saw the ravages in Western Europe of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic and pneumonic plague; 2020 has become the year of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the name of the virus that has caused the pandemic disease identified as COVID-19. Tenso has represented and served as a voice for the community of Occitan scholars since its first issue in 1986–1987. How COVID-19 may change that world is hard to know as I write. What is clear is that the emergency has severely limited scholarly access to libraries, though it has expanded, at least temporarily, scholarly access to online materials, such as those posted by the HathiTrust Digital Library, normally accessible only via partner institutions. This volume serves as a special issue, edited by Daniel O'Sullivan, who organized two panels at the Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 2019—oh, the days when scholars could meet in person—on the theme of Thibaut de Champagne and the troubadours. Dan's introduction sets that stage separately. This issue also includes two brief pieces relating to scholar Jean-Claude Dinguirard (1940–1983), who deserves more recognition than he may have received during his too-short lifetime. His exceptional work in Occitan ranged from linguistic studies of Gascon to work on proverbs and medieval literature, and included translations into Occitan. His son has created a web site, described here, which will be of great interest to Occitan scholars, as the site makes available the works of the universitari tolosenc. In parallel, Pierre Escudé describes efforts to make Dinguirard's works available again in print. The genre of the Op-Ed is continued in Tenso 36, with a different team of scholars offering their perspectives on directions for Occitan studies. Bill Burgwinkle and Hervé Lieutard each [End Page iv] offer insights on new areas worthy of exploration by current and future Occitanists. Some members of the Tenso bibliographic team have expressed regret that their work is less complete than they might have wished, because of the pandemic. No apologies are accepted. The Web is an incredible tool, even as hard copies have proven harder to obtain in 2020 (let us now praise the work of Interlibrary Loan Librarians throughout the world). I propose a round of applause for our bibliographers and discographer for their continued and unstinting efforts to let the scholarly community know what is being published, in print and online, relating to our fields of studies. Though Tenso's bibliographers may not have been able to work in 2020 as they usually have, they offer here their always excellent research. As for works omitted this year, they will be incorporated into annual bibliographies in years to come, as has always been the case. One last observation: this volume includes two necrologies, one for Xavier Ravier, who had two passions, linguistics (principally Occitan dialectology and onomastics) and verse, which he knew as a critic and as a poet. Samuel Rosenberg's fame may be greater in the community of Old French scholars than among Occitanists, despite his significant work in our discipline. For me, Sam was a mentor and a friend. On his retirement, freed from the constraints of teaching and committee work, he engaged ever more actively in scholarship and translation, serving as a model for us all to his last days. COVID-19 has forced many of us into some form of "retirement" or confinement. Sam's career demonstrates that while such a retreat brings deprivations, it can also be filled with opportunities. Wendy Pfeffer Editor-in-Chief WORK CITED <https://www.hathitrust.org/>, consulted 14 August 2020. Copyright © 2021 Société Guilhem IX

Communicating COVID-19 Uncertainty: Lessons from the Past

This article examines the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the era of the risk society. It employs literature-based analysis and study of legal sources. The first part of the article presents the crucial role of communicating information during a pandemic and the role of WHO in the area of infectious diseases. Confidence, public trust, and public involvement are according to Urlich Beck critical for the acceptance of risk related policies. This article, through the paradigm of a pandemic of the past, (the case of the bubonic plague in Ionian islands), argues how crucial is the communication of the uncertainties, the involvement of the public and the information networks. Furthermore, it supports that during the covid-19 crisis, health risk communication and management of the crisis were not sufficient. Some of the reasons were: the unclearance of the message transmitted, limited public and community participation in the decision making process and in shaping the health policy, crisis of public confidence, inadequacy of implemented policies, e.t.c. It concludes that collective and just solution, harmonized global action, access to information, international solidarity, and the involvement of the locals are of paramount importance.

Potential human immunotherapeutics for plague.

Two monoclonal antibodies directed to the V antigen of Yersinia pestis have been tested for protective efficacy in a murine model of bubonic plague. Mice were infected with a current clinical isolate from Madagascar, designated Y. pestis 10-21/S. Mab7.3, delivered to mice intra-periteoneally at either 24 h prior to, or 24 h post-infection, was fully protective, building on many studies which have demonstrated the protective efficacy of this Mab against a number of different clinical isolates of Y. pestis. Mab 29.3, delivered intra-peritoneally at either -24 h or +24 h, protected 4/5 mice in either condition; this has demonstrated the protective efficacy of this Mab in vivo for the first time. These results add to the cumulative data about Mab7.3, which is currently being humanized and highlight its potential as a human immunotherapeutic for plague, which is an enduring endemic disease in Madagascar and other regions of Africa, Asia, and South America.

The Horrors of Plague and a Message of Hope

In 1347 CE, a Genoese trading ship docked at the Italian town of Messina. Along with trade goods, it brought a mysterious illness. Soon after, Messina descended into chaos as sailors and townspeople began to drop dead. Terrified, people fled the city, leaving behind all they had ever known. This scene would become far too common as the bubonic plague ripped through Europe. By 1351, the plague had killed an estimated twenty-four million people, approximately one-third of Europe’s population. Examination of Europe’s fourteenth-century plague reveals how ubiquitous death can generate fear and anger among the populace; however, it also demonstrates how a pandemic can bring about much-needed social change. The plague resulted in improved medicine, epidemiology, and sanitation as well as enhanced economic and political status for the common people.

Authoritarian Violence, Public Health, and the Necropolitical State: Engaging the South African Response to COVID-19

Abstract Following COVID-19’s arrival in March 2020, the South African government implemented a restrictive state-led response to the pandemic, limiting infections along with the survival strategies of those at greatest risk of illness. While the country’s aggressive tactics towards the pandemic have been lauded by some, the public health response has taken a violent turn towards the country’s historically marginalized Black urban population. How are we to make sense of the ruling African National Congress’ decision to utilize the South African state’s capacity for violence towards poor and working-class Black urban communities? How can this disease response be contextualized within the broader dynamics of citizenship across South African history? Building on these questions, I analyze South African efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic alongside the state response to an outbreak of bubonic plague during the colonial era. I propose that the South African state carries within it divergent historical continuities, some of which carry forward the necropolitical modalities of the colonial and apartheid eras and others that redistribute resources to safeguard life.

What Is an Animal? Contagion and Being Human in a Multispecies World

From the early modern period to well into the eighteenth century, cattle plagues, murrains, or what were called “great cattle mortalities” were often analogized to bubonic plague; felling animals in devastating numbers, these catastrophes likewise afflicted living creatures on a grand scale. Three Enlightenment cattle pandemics (1709–1720, 1742–1760, and 1768–1786) propelled governments across Europe to enact harsh regulatory measures, including widespread slaughters, quarantines, and major disruptions of trade. This article examines works by Theophilus Lobb, Richard Bradley, Nathaniel Hodges, and Daniel Defoe, among other writers and physicians, who responded differently to the ways in which human and animal health were biophysically and imaginatively linked.

바이러스와 역사 - 영미권 중국 의학사의 유행병 연구 -

Historians of Chinese medicine have presented different views on the ontology of disease. For those who are primarily concerned with the specificities of microorganisms, such as Yersinia pestis, biology is the foundation of a historical inquiry. Contemporary nosology has defined evidence of the bubonic plague’s manifestation in nineteenth-century China; demographic changes, enhanced mobility, and commercial development in southwestern China elucidates locally specific circumstances of the outbreak. Indeed, the identity of Yersinia pestis places the Chinese experience of the bubonic plague parallel with the Roman’s experience of the Justinian plague and the Europeans’ of the Black Death.<BR> However, unlike those who prioritize biological commonality, one group of disease historians have questioned the ahistorical agency of bacteria and viruses. They intend to investigate a socio-culturally situated understanding of communicative illnesses in China, including the evolution of Chinese etiology and the Chinese perception of disease transmission. These scholars have examined indigenous concepts and therapeutic rationales, such as shanghan (cold-damage), wenbing (warm disease), chuanran (contagion and infection), and the miscellaneous qi to articulate the Chinese experience of epidemics.<BR> Furthermore, historians of medicine have highlighted the central role epidemics have played in shaping modern Asia, scrutinizing experiences of pandemics through the lens of multi-layered interdependencies across Asia. Asia’s dynamism posits pandemics’ experiences were at the center of Asia’s transition to modernity, provincializing the existing Eurocentric history of epidemics. After the onset of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the centuries-long “sick man of Asia” is likely to be replaced by the “sick man of North America.” However, despite unbound expectations about radical departures, scholars are questioning whether the dominant sense of crisis around the current pandemic will lead to any crucial remedies for pre-existing inequalities, systemic racism, and environmental emergencies.

AI-based healthcare: a new dawn or apartheid revisited?

The Bubonic Plague outbreak that wormed its way through San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1900 tells a story of prejudice guiding health policy, resulting in enormous suffering for much of its Chinese population. This article seeks to discuss the potential for hidden “prejudice” should Artificial Intelligence (AI) gain a dominant foothold in healthcare systems. Using a toy model, this piece explores potential future outcomes, should AI continue to develop without bound. Where potential dangers may lurk will be discussed, so that the full benefits AI has to offer can be reaped whilst avoiding the pitfalls. The model is produced using the computer programming language MATLAB and offers visual representations of potential outcomes. Interwoven with these potential outcomes are numerous historical models for problems caused by prejudice and recent issues in AI systems, from police prediction and facial recognition software to recruitment tools. Therefore, this research’s novel angle, of using historical precedents to model and discuss potential futures, offers a unique contribution.

COVID-19 Symptom-Related Google Searches and Local COVID-19 Incidence in Spain: Correlational Study.

BackgroundCOVID-19 is one of the biggest pandemics in human history, along with other disease pandemics, such as the H1N1 influenza A, bubonic plague, and smallpox pandemics. This study is a small contribution that tries to find contrasted formulas to alleviate global suffering and guarantee a more manageable future.ObjectiveIn this study, a statistical approach was proposed to study the correlation between the incidence of COVID-19 in Spain and search data provided by Google Trends.MethodsWe assessed the linear correlation between Google Trends search data and the data provided by the National Center of Epidemiology in Spain—which is dependent on the Instituto de Salud Carlos III—regarding the number of COVID-19 cases reported with a certain time lag. These data enabled the identification of anticipatory patterns.ResultsIn response to the ongoing outbreak, our results demonstrate that by using our correlation test, the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic can be predicted in Spain up to 11 days in advance.ConclusionsDuring the epidemic, Google Trends offers the possibility to preempt health care decisions in real time by tracking people's concerns through their search patterns. This can be of great help given the critical, if not dramatic need for complementary monitoring approaches that work on a population level and inform public health decisions in real time. This study of Google search patterns, which was motivated by the fears of individuals in the face of a pandemic, can be useful in anticipating the development of the pandemic.

Comparison of the transmission efficiency and plague progression dynamics associated with two mechanisms by which fleas transmit Yersinia pestis.

Yersinia pestis can be transmitted by fleas during the first week after an infectious blood meal, termed early-phase or mass transmission, and again after Y. pestis forms a cohesive biofilm in the flea foregut that blocks normal blood feeding. We compared the transmission efficiency and the progression of infection after transmission by Oropsylla montana fleas at both stages. Fleas were allowed to feed on mice three days after an infectious blood meal to evaluate early-phase transmission, or after they had developed complete proventricular blockage. Transmission was variable and rather inefficient by both modes, and the odds of early-phase transmission was positively associated with the number of infected fleas that fed. Disease progression in individual mice bitten by fleas infected with a bioluminescent strain of Y. pestis was tracked. An early prominent focus of infection at the intradermal flea bite site and dissemination to the draining lymph node(s) soon thereafter were common features, but unlike what has been observed in intradermal injection models, this did not invariably lead to further systemic spread and terminal disease. Several of these mice resolved the infection without progression to terminal sepsis and developed an immune response to Y. pestis, particularly those that received an intermediate number of early-phase flea bites. Furthermore, two distinct types of terminal disease were noted: the stereotypical rapid onset terminal disease within four days, or a prolonged onset preceded by an extended, fluctuating infection of the lymph nodes before eventual systemic dissemination. For both modes of transmission, bubonic plague rather than primary septicemic plague was the predominant disease outcome. The results will help to inform mathematical models of flea-borne plague dynamics used to predict the relative contribution of the two transmission modes to epizootic outbreaks that erupt periodically from the normal enzootic background state.

The Politics of Pandemic Othering: Putting COVID-19 in Global and Historical Context

AbstractAs COVID-19 began to spread around the world, so did reports of discrimination and violence against people from marginalized groups. We argue that in a global politics characterized by racialized inequality, pandemics such as COVID-19 exacerbate the marginalization of already oppressed groups. We review published research on previous pandemics to historicize pandemic othering and blame, and enumerate some of the consequences for politics, policy, and public health. Specifically, we draw on lessons from smallpox outbreaks, the third bubonic plague, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and more recent pandemics, such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola. We also compile reports to document the discrimination and violence targeting marginalized groups early in the COVID-19 pandemic. This article lays bare the continuation of a long history of othering and blame during disease outbreaks and identifies needs for further inquiry to understand the persistence of these pandemic politics.

Covid‐19: Where We Are, What Got Us Here, and Where We Are Likely to Be Going—A Review Essay*

Covid‐19: Where We Are, What Got Us Here, and Where We Are Likely to Be Going—A Review Essay*

전염병의 과학은 어떻게 논쟁되는가? - 1911년 만주 폐페스트 발병과 국제페스트컨퍼런스

This paper aims to demonstrate the complexity of medical practices on epidemic diseases and the relationships with the circumstances outside laboratory, by reviewing the pneumonic plague in Manchuria and the International Plague Conference in 1911. First of all, although bubonic plague had been historically rampant and its pathogen(Yersinia pestis) was identified in 1894, pneumonic form was unfamiliar disease in 1911, not only because it had rarely been seen but because its symptoms were quite different from the bubonic form. Medical experts at the conference, despite their acquaintance with bubonic plague, could not conclusively confirm that pneumonic plague was the same disease as the bubonic form. Secondly, at that time the way to inspect new and perplexing diseases, such as pneumonic plague, was not single and homogenous, and a variety of medical practices from traditional patho-anatomic observations to laboratory techniques, for example, bacteriological and histological analyses and animal experiments, had to be involved. While these diverse practices served to aid in the understanding of pneumonic plague to some extent, they were judged by different standards and became the central issue of debate at the conference. Thirdly, Manchuria offered an unstable stage for scientific investigations. Medical examinations of representatives concerning pneumonic plague had been influenced by the political position of powers in Manchuria. Therefore, the conference which aimed to understand and overcome unfamiliar epidemic, had failed to draw an unanimous conclusions. This paper, reviewing the case of Manchuria in 1911, would contribute to understand the complexity of medical practices on COVID19 and its relationships with diverse circumstances outside laboratory.

Estimating the basic reproduction number for the 2015 bubonic plague outbreak in Nyimba district of Eastern Zambia.

BackgroundPlague is a re-emerging flea-borne infectious disease of global importance and in recent years, Zambia has periodically experienced increased incidence of outbreaks of this disease. However, there are currently no studies in the country that provide a quantitative assessment of the ability of the disease to spread during these outbreaks. This limits our understanding of the epidemiology of the disease especially for planning and implementing quantifiable and cost-effective control measures. To fill this gap, the basic reproduction number, R0, for bubonic plague was estimated in this study, using data from the 2015 Nyimba district outbreak, in the Eastern province of Zambia. R0 is the average number of secondary infections arising from a single infectious individual during their infectious period in an entirely susceptible population.Methodology/Principal findingsSecondary epidemic data for the most recent 2015 Nyimba district bubonic plague outbreak in Zambia was analyzed. R0 was estimated as a function of the average epidemic doubling time based on the initial exponential growth rate of the outbreak and the average infectious period for bubonic plague. R0 was estimated to range between 1.5599 [95% CI: 1.382–1.7378] and 1.9332 [95% CI: 1.6366–2.2297], with average of 1.7465 [95% CI: 1.5093–1.9838]. Further, an SIR deterministic mathematical model was derived for this infection and this estimated R0 to be between 1.4 to 1.5, which was within the range estimated above.Conclusions/SignificanceThis estimated R0 for bubonic plague is an indication that each bubonic plague case can typically give rise to almost two new cases during these outbreaks. This R0 estimate can now be used to quantitatively analyze and plan measurable interventions against future plague outbreaks in Zambia.

The Socio-Economic Impact of Raiding on the Eastern and Balkan Borderlands of the Eastern Roman Empire, 502 – 602

Abstract This paper compares the socio-economic impact of warfare on two frontier zones of the sixth-century eastern Roman empire: the central and northern Balkans; and the northern Syrian-Mesopotamian and Armenian borderlands in the East. The theme of war damage is central to historical and archaeological work on the Balkans but plays a comparatively marginal role in research on the East. And yet the eastern provinces were affected by more intensive raiding by larger armies, and at least as regularly as the Balkans. Much of the difference in perception is related to contemporary sources’ exaggerated coverage of ‘barbarian’ raiding on the Balkans, a region traditionally viewed as a neglected backwater by authors such as Procopius. Conversely, such sources portray warfare with the Sassanid Persians in the East through a ‘classicising’ lens, describing at greater length generals’ speeches, battles, campaigns and sieges. Another reason for the disparity in modern discussions of the two regions is the socio-economic recession in the northern Balkans toward the end of the sixth century. This can be at least indirectly linked to the effects of warfare between the empire and the Avar Khaganate and Slavic groups. Recovery from the devastation caused by these groups’ invasions could no longer be funded by the imperial authorities, who, by this stage, were struggling to finance wars on multiple fronts and were feeling the fiscal effects of repeated bouts of bubonic plague. Despite also suffering from this absence of central investment, eastern societies and economies enjoyed a greater degree of continuity in the final decades of the sixth century. This was because non-imperial sources of agricultural and commercial wealth in these areas encouraged elites to invest in recovery projects. Local elites’ and wider populations’ deep-rooted feelings of cultural, linguistic and religious attachment also played a role in their survival. These economic and cultural ties can in part be explained by the fact that, unlike the Balkans, these eastern provinces had enjoyed a long period of peace and stability in the fourth and fifth centuries.

Development of Anti-Yersinia pestis Human Antibodies with Features Required for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications.

BackgroundYersinia pestis is a category A infective agent that causes bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague. Notably, the acquisition of antimicrobial or multidrug resistance through natural or purposed means qualifies Y. pestis as a potential biothreat agent. Therefore, high-quality antibodies designed for accurate and sensitive Y. pestis diagnostics, and therapeutics potentiating or replacing traditional antibiotics are of utmost need for national security and public health preparedness.MethodsHere, we describe a set of human monoclonal immunoglobulins (IgG1s) targeting Y. pestis fraction 1 (F1) antigen, previously derived from in vitro evolution of a phage-display library of single-chain antibodies (scFv). We extensively characterized these antibodies and their effect on bacterial and mammalian cells via: ELISA, flow cytometry, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy, and various metabolic assays.ResultsTwo of our anti-F1 IgG (αF1Ig 2 and αF1Ig 8) stood out for high production yield, specificity, and stability. These two antibodies were additionally attractive in that they displayed picomolar affinity, did not compete when binding Y. pestis, and retained immunoreactivity upon chemical derivatization. Most importantly, these antibodies detected <1,000 Y. pestis cells in sandwich ELISA, did not harm respiratory epithelial cells, induced Y. pestis agglutination at low concentration (350 nM), and caused apparent reduction in cell growth when radiolabeled at a nonagglutinating concentration (34 nM).ConclusionThese antibodies are amenable to the development of accurate and sensitive diagnostics and immuno/radioimmunotherapeutics.

What's eating you? human flea (Pulex irritans).

The human flea, Pulex irritans, is an important vector in the transmission of human diseases. This flea has been identified as a vector for the bubonic plague as far back as the 14th century, causing millions of deaths. Pulex irritans also has been identified as a vector for Bartonella bacteria species, which can cause trench fever. Rickettsia species, which can cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Mediterranean spotted fever, also have been identified in P irritans. Flea bites present as intensely pruritic papules and can be treated with topical antipruritics and corticosteroids. The most effective form of flea control and prevention includes a combination of insecticidal products and insect growth regulators.

Returning to The Plague and The Bhagwad Gita : New Meaning and “Existentialist Absurdity” amid COVID-19 Pandemic

??????????????????? ?? ????? ???????? ?????????????????? ?? ???????????????????2.47??&#x0D; Meaning:&#x0D; Your right is to perform your work but never be oriented to the results. Never be motivated by the results of your actions, nor should you be attached to not performing your prescribed duties.&#x0D; The above mentioned philosophy however, can be best understood in the present scenario of the pandemic of COVID 19. The pandemic which has kept everybody unsettled, restless from within, Shrimad Bhagwad Gita serves a torchbearer to the humanity. It holds our faith in karma, the true meaning of life.&#x0D; As WHO reported, 2020 gripped the whole world into the saga of darkness which is started with a disease from animal. Not only that in fact it has engulfed the whole world into it. The entire world it seems has locked and blocked not only its movements but life. The numbers of death and patients increasing every day and with this increase in number is increasing the social stigma towards people. Health workers, women, children, sex workers, all are victim of it. This saga of disease has restricted not only our breathing but livelihood, happiness. We all succumb now to our own shell. Aristotle said once, “man is a social animal” and look at the world around today, a small little animal has brought that man to just a tiny individual who is always at the hands and prey to the nature. Be it Ebola Virus (EVD) of 1976 that was considered one of the deadliest viruses until then of its own kind, severely fatal to human illness or the Spanish Flu or the Bubonic Plague, Black Death epidemic. All these have always been fatal and deadliest in their own specific ways. Still, we human always feel surprised whenever we face such sudden outbreak of any disaster, what so ever. The catastrophic, xenophobic behaviour, subjects to be analysed from anthropological point of view try to justify one of the foremost evolution myths by Herbert Specncer, “Survival of the Fittest”. However, in literature, it is said that everything has a purpose in a narrative or a situation, it has a meaning to interpret. Things and situations are always interpretational. So is the case in this pandemic. This COVID-19 is much more than just a “disease”. It’s a social-cultural construct that shapes, reshapes or de-shapes humanities responses and behaviour.&#x0D; The objective of this paper is to look these constructs from a different lens and analyse the underlying existential philosophy, an existential absurdity drawing adjacent connections between the age old two classics piece of literature, The Bhagwad Gita (a long conversation between Arjuna and Lord Krishna before the battle of Mahabharata in the battle field Kurukshetra and The Plague by Albert Camus.

A casa do trabalhador em tempos epidêmicos. São Paulo, primeiras décadas republicanas

Entre o final do século XIX e os anos 1910, com o crescimento vertiginoso da cidade de São Paulo, a habitação dos trabalhadores foi tema de discussões médicas e de propostas governamentais, além de pauta recorrente de jornais que, em nome dos trabalhadores ou operários, denunciavam a situação precária das moradias de muitos dos habitantes da cidade. Este artigo discute a casa operária na capital do estado de São Paulo nos contextos da ameaça de peste bubônica em 1899, do surto de varíola de 1908 e da epidemia de gripe espanhola, privilegiando as considerações dos jornais “independentes”, anarquistas ou libertários e, no caso da gripe de 1918, aquelas do O Combate, jornal da grande imprensa cujo lema era “independência, verdade e justiça”. Nesses jornais, a ciência, traduzida em proposições médicas, embasou críticas sociais e ao governo, e a divulgação, para os trabalhadores, do ideal da casa salubre e da importância das práticas higiênicas para a manutenção da saúde nesses períodos epidêmicos.

Antibody Opsonization Enhances Early Interactions between Yersinia pestis and Neutrophils in the Skin and Draining Lymph Node in a Mouse Model of Bubonic Plague.

Bubonic plague results when Yersinia pestis is deposited in the skin via the bite of an infected flea. Bacteria then traffic to the draining lymph node (dLN) where they replicate to large numbers. Without treatment, this infection can result in highly fatal septicemia. Several plague vaccine candidates are currently at various stages of development, but no licensed vaccine is available in the United States. Though polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies (Ab) can provide complete protection against bubonic plague in animal models, the mechanisms responsible for this antibody-mediated immunity (AMI) to Y. pestis remain poorly understood. Here, we examine the effects of Ab opsonization on Y. pestis interactions with phagocytes in vitro and in vivo Opsonization of Y. pestis with polyclonal antiserum modestly increased phagocytosis/killing by an oxidative burst of murine neutrophils in vitro Intravital microscopy (IVM) showed increased association of Ab-opsonized Y. pestis with neutrophils in the dermis in a mouse model of bubonic plague. IVM of popliteal LNs after intradermal (i.d.) injection of bacteria in the footpad revealed increased Y. pestis-neutrophil interactions and increased neutrophil crawling and extravasation in response to Ab-opsonized bacteria. Thus, despite only having a modest effect in in vitro assays, opsonizing Ab had a dramatic effect in vivo on Y. pestis-neutrophil interactions in the dermis and dLN very early after infection. These data shed new light on the importance of neutrophils in AMI to Y. pestis and may provide a new correlate of protection for evaluation of plague vaccine candidates.