Authorities have evacuated and shut down a section of a national forest outside Los Angeles for at least a week as a precaution after a ground squirrel was found there infected with the plague.
The squirrel tested positive for plague on July 23 after it was trapped in the Angeles National Forest during "routine surveillance activities" on the 16th of July.
A health department spokesman said no people were believed to have been infected.
An average of seven cases of plague are reported each year in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mostly in western states. The disease is typically not fatal if treated with antibiotics.
Officials said further testing of squirrels would be conducted in the Angeles National Forest before the Broken Blade, Twisted Arrow and Pima Loops campgrounds were re-opened to the public.
According to the health department, plague has been known to reside in the San Gabriel Mountains ground squirrel population. Previous surveillance efforts have identified five other squirrels carrying the disease since 1996.
Plague, known as the "Black Death" when it was blamed for killing some 25 million Europeans during the Middle Ages, is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas.
|