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AP: Feds Collect Giant Rats in Florida By MARGARET EBRAHIM, Associated Press Writer 3 hours ago As the rising sun danced across Florida's coastal waters, government workers in shorts and T-shirts knelt in a grassy island field and plucked wriggling rats from traps laid the night before. These weren't just any rats. They were 3-pound, 35-inch-long African behemoths. They squirmed as the workers, wearing protective gloves, removed green radio collars that had been tracking the rodents' movements. All 18 of the animals were carted away for research. Darin Carroll kept a watchful eye on that dawn mission at Florida's Grassy...

CHICAGO -- State officials have tracked down all but two prairie dogs sold to Illinois buyers by a suburban Chicago business where the weeklong outbreak of monkeypox originated, an Agriculture Department spokesman said Friday. Spokesman Jeff Squibb said officials have located two of four Gambian giant rats -- the animal believed to have infected the prairie dogs with monkeypox -- sold within Illinois by the same business. He said they continue to search for the other two, which were given away by the buyer. In all, Squibb said officials have tracked down 19 of 21 prairie dogs sold within Illinois...

OK, it's nearly summer, and it's been really wet, so we're getting our annual fix of stories about how there will be more mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus this year. This comes at a time when we're still fighting the spread of SARS and we're still wary that some of those palsied cattle in Canada might spread mad cow disease our way. Now comes the latest pestilence, which erupted over the weekend and was previously unknown in our part of the world: dozens of people in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana have contracted an affliction called ``monkeypox virus.'' Health officials say...

CHICAGO - Health officials investigating an outbreak of monkeypox that apparently spread from pet prairie dogs to people in three Midwestern states said Monday the number of possible cases has risen to at least 40. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported four confirmed human cases Monday of monkeypox, a smallpox-related virus that has never before appeared in the Western Hemisphere. Seven people have been hospitalized; no one has died. Steve Ostroff, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, said he expects the numbers to rise as human and animal samples are tested. But Ostroff said...

PRINT THIS STORY | E-MAIL THIS STORY U.S. bans prairie dog sale, trade Smallpox vaccine recommended to control spread of exotic disease By DANIEL YEE, Associated Press June 12, 2003 ATLANTA - The U.S. government banned the sale of prairie dogs, prohibited the importation of African rodents and recommended smallpox shots Wednesday for people exposed to monkeypox, the exotic African disease that has spread from pet prairie dogs to humans. The government's aggressive response to the disease came the same day that the federal investigation of the monkeypox outbreak was expanded to eight more states, including Tennessee, bringing the total...

ATLANTA - The U.S. government banned the sale of prairie dogs, prohibited the importation of African rodents and recommended smallpox shots Wednesday for people exposed to monkeypox, the exotic African disease that has spread from pet prairie dogs to humans. The smallpox vaccine can prevent monkeypox up to two weeks after exposure to the virus, but is most effective in the first four days. "We're optimistic we can deliver the vaccine to these people in time to do good," said Dr. David Fleming, deputy director for Public Health and Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news -...

Monkeypox cases 'will go up' June 11, 2003 BY DAN ROZEK, Staff Reporter As more suspected human cases of monkeypox virus were reported in Illinois, state officials said Tuesday they've found only about half of the estimated 130 prairie dogs sold by the Villa Park dealer whose animals may be linked to the nation's first outbreak of the rare African disease. And the illness, which had been limited to Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, may have turned up in a new state as New Jersey health officials said an 11-year-old boy there apparently has been sickened by the virus. But the...

As if SARS, mad cow and West Nile virus were not enough, Health Canada is advising public health officials to be on the lookout for monkeypox, a serious disease related to smallpox, which has made its first appearance in North America. No cases have been reported in Canada, but an advisory is being sent to medical officials and public health labs across the country about an "epidemic" in the U.S. and the need to watch for the disease, said Dr. Frank Plummer, head of Health Canada's national microbiology laboratory in Winnipeg. Thirty-seven people in the U.S. Midwest are believed to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The monkeypox outbreak illustrates a growing problem: Exotic animals give exotic diseases to people who get too close, a trend that some medical specialists call a serious public health threat. Such diseases can become a threat not just to the people who buy and sell exotic pets, but to the general public if they spread to native animals and become established in the United States. Federal health officials are working frantically to ensure doesn't happen with monkeypox. "This is a harbinger of things to come," warns Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, who advises the government...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Officials in three states tried on Monday to track down pet prairie dogs believed spreading "monkeypox," a smallpox-like illness not seen before in the Western Hemisphere that may have infected 37 people. Only six of the victims were being treated in hospitals, officials said, and they were expected to recover with bed rest. The disease, caused by monkeypox virus, is not believed to spread person-to-person. But in light of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome scare and an approaching summer season when mosquito-borne West Nile virus was likely to again pose a deadly threat, health officials were moving...

Monkeypox Virus Spreads Across Upper Midwest Officials Warn Public To Avoid Ill Prairie Dogs POSTED: 10:09 a.m. EDT June 9, 2003 Tests have confirmed that the disease that has sickened pet prairie dogs and numerous humans is the monkeypox virus. MONKEYPOX CDC Info.WHO Info.Guidelines For Vets, Pet Owners And it's spreading across the upper Midwest, causing an outbreak of rashes, fevers and chills in people. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the prairie dogs likely were infected by a giant Gambian rat at a suburban Chicago pet distributor. Health officials have confirmed that four Wisconsin people...

Health officials are investigating at least 29 suspected cases of people in three Midwestern states who may have been stricken in the outbreak so far, which state and federal health officials are urgently working to contain. State and federal authorities are tracing about 200 animals that were distributed in 15 states by an exotic pet dealer in Illinois. The dealer sold rodents known as prairie dogs, which are believed to be the source of the outbreak. In addition to trying to prevent more infections, officials are worried that the animals could spread the disease to wild rabbits and other indigenous...

Monkeypox virus underscores danger of having exotic pets Two new cases of illness confirmed By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and SARAH CARR mmarchione@journalsentinel.com Last Updated: June 8, 2003 The human monkeypox outbreak, likely spread by prairie dogs via imported African rats, is the latest example of a danger that health officials have warned of for years: Exotic pets often bring exotic health threats. Deadly infections, unusual injuries and people getting bored with or overwhelmed by owning such pets and releasing them into the wild have been reported, health and agriculture officials say. Importing super-exotic pets into the United States, such as Gambian...

<p>Wisconsin health officials ordered a ban Friday on the sale, importation and display of prairie dogs after a dozen people were sickened from exposure to the animals.</p> <p>Health officials said all 12 people in Wisconsin had recovered or were getting better, although three remained in a suburban Milwaukee hospital Friday in satisfactory condition. Two other people were sickened in Illinois.</p>

By The Associated Press (6/07/03 - MADISON, WI) — A virus related to smallpox that has never been detected in the Western Hemisphere may be the cause of a mysterious disease spreading from pet prairie dogs to people across the upper Midwest, health officials said Saturday. Sign up for free E-witness News Arsenal of weapons found in girl's bedroom; four teens arrested Watch for construction closures on Houston roads this weekend Fire erupts at plant on Ship Channel Driver flees scene after fiery accident kills his passenger Argument in strip center parking lot turns into deadly shooting Three-alarm strip center...

At least 19 people in three Midwestern states have contracted a disease related to smallpox, marking the first outbreak of the life-threatening illness in the United States, federal heath officials said yesterday. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concerned that the illness could spread, issued a nationwide alert to doctors and public health officials to be on the lookout for more cases. "We have an outbreak," said James Hughes, director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases in Atlanta. "I'd like to keep it relatively small. I don't want any more cases. We're doing everything we can...

Infected prairie dogs traced to Villa Park distributor June 8, 2003 BY COURTNEY K. WADE Staff Reporter A distributor in suburban Chicago appears to be the source for a smallpox-related virus spreading from pet prairie dogs to people in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday. The virus is believed to be transmitted to humans by infected prairie dogs and Gambian rats. This is the first time the virus, similar to monkeypox common in Africa, has been found in the Western hemisphere. By Saturday, Wisconsin reported 17 human cases, mostly affecting residents in...