Posted on 05/12/2012 6:06:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Warning Signs Placed Around Cedar Grove Campground On Palomar Mtn.
A ground squirrel trapped during routine monitoring at the Cedar Grove Campground on Palomar Mountain tested positive for plague, the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health reported Thursday.
Plague is a bacterial disease carried by wild rodents that can be transmitted to humans through the bite of infected fleas, according to the DEH.
The agency placed warning signs in the area so visitors could take precautions to avoid flea contact.
"It is not unusual to find plague in our local mountains in the summer months, so campers should always avoid contact with squirrels and their fleas," said DEH Director Jack Miller. "Set up tents away from squirrel burrows, do not feed the squirrels and warn your children not to play with squirrels."
The agency also advises avoiding contact with wild animals, particularly ground squirrels and chipmunks; not touching sick or dead animals; and keeping pets on a leash or leaving them at home.
Someone who becomes ill within one week of visiting an area known to have plague should contact a doctor immediately, according to the DEH.
Symptoms include a sudden onset of fever, chills and tender, swollen lymph nodes.
The agency said there have never been any known human cases of plague contracted here.
“It is not unusual to find plague in our local mountains in the summer months,...”
They never told us that in the Boy Scouts in the 50s. Geeez.
NM east of Albuquerque is ground zero for plague in the world. Not a year passes without a case, sometimes fatal.
NM.... land of the flea and home of the plague.
My Family was living in Illinois, and we Scouts went to summer camp in Wisconsin. But even at Philmont in NM, they never said a word. Of course, we all carried .22LRs and shot competitive NRA.
http://www.philmontscoutranch.org/
The most common vector is handling dead rodents, or having an outdoor cat that brings the fleas back.
Ground squirrels and prairie dogs are the biggest carriers. I just shoot them on sight and use 48” tongs to dispose of the bodies.
With the unlimited crossing back and forth of foreign people there is not any documentation of diseases which may infect our people.
This country has eradicated tuberculous, plague, and many ills.
I’m not going to say these people are dirty but unchecked import of undocumented people is just another step to the destruction of this country.
Bubonic?
Yep, except the “bring out yer dead” cart is a ‘98 F150.
Longbed, airgate.
Yeah Buddy!
It could be worse, the dead could be bringing themSELVES out....
Its all part of the ‘diversity’ package.
At the Forrest Service campgrounds at Lake Davis, Plumas County Calif. in the late ‘70’s, early ‘80’s the Bubonic Plague broke out. It of course was connected to the fleas on the ground squirrels there. The state health dept. sent up teams to kill the fleas on the rodents. They were not allowed to use DDT, so they tried many other chemicals to do the job.....nothing worked. Finally the dept. relented and let the guys spread DDT around all the squirrel holes.....end of problem. It took quite a few weeks between the first lame dusting of ineffective chemicals until the winner DDT was used.
In the meantime, many hundreds of would be campers were denied access and the surrounding towns suffered financially all because of the wonderful PC health dept. idiots.
My wife and I owned the motel where the health people stayed, and it is from them I got this information. From the very beginning these guys said that if they could use DDT, they could get rid of the problem quickly. They were thoroughly fed up with the hierarchy that made them waste so much time and resources.
Har har...don’t forget to tip your waitress.
You do know there is a limit of two squirrel stories posted within a 24 hour period on Free Reublic, don’t you?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2883096/posts
You are free to post about any other rodent (plenty of democrats to pick from), but please avoid squirrels for at least 24 hours.
In humans, yes, that’s one possible outcome.
The thing to focus on is that the pathogen is the same, aka “Y. Pestis.” In rodents, it doesn’t present the same symptoms as it does in humans, but it is the same bacteria as what causes the bubonic plague in humans.
In central Nevada, we would sometimes see the population of ground squirrels (Belding’s ground squirrels, specifically) crash in a period of months.
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