Yersinia pestis
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- Cause of bubonic plague in humans, transmitted via fleas from infected rats
- Not a significant veterinary disease
- Disease in rats and other rodents similar to the disease in humans
- Bubonic form can lead to the pneumonic form, which is highly contagious and usually fatal
- Humans and domestic and wild animals incidental hosts
- Plague has rarely been reported in dogs, cats, camels, elephants, deer
- Cats can acquire the disease from ingesting dead rodents, and show lymphadenopathy and abscesses
- Fever, lethargy, swelling and abscessation of lymph nodes particularly in head and neck region
- 50% mortality if not treated
- Possesses 3 plasmids, 2 of which are unique to this species; these encode an endotoxin, and coagulase and fibrinolytic activity