A few sections of a wildlife refuge in Colorado on Sunday were shut down as a precautionary step after the authorities found prairie dogs infected with plague there during late July. Nature and wildlife regions have been closed near Denver as the officials work to prevent advancement of the serious disease across other regions informed the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Parts of the 15,000 acre huge Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, which was shut down during late July, was partially reopened on Sunday. However, the other locations across Commerce City would continue to remain shut till the Labor Day 2019 weekend, said the Tri-County Department of Health.
The colonies of the prairie dogs are currently being monitors while the burrows are getting treated with the needed insecticide; however there’s still indication of fleas across camping and hiking regions that could place people at risk, said John Douglas from the Tri-County Department of Health. Hence, those areas shall remain shut, he added.
No case of any human being infected has come to the fore till now, he said.
Though plague is a rare disease, it can generally be treated and cured, in the US at least. It is caused due to bacteria called Yersinia pestis and is quite recurrent in the rural western regions in the US, which includes Colorado, as per the CDC.
