Yersinia pestis

• • 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