Plague is a disease that poses serious threats to public and ecosystem health. Its causative bacterium, Yersinia pestis , was transported to North America around 1900, where it quickly became established in native rodent populations and spread throughout the western half of the United States by the mid-1900s. Many questions remain about plague circulation in the numerous rodent species involved, but its ecology in rabbits and other lagomorphs is even less understood. We describe a plague epizootic that appeared to involve both desert cottontail rabbits ( Sylvilagus audubonii ) and black-tailed jackrabbits ( Lepus californicus ). We believe this to be the first such description to involve both species of rabbits and the first description of a plague epizootic in the Mojave Desert. This epizootic also involved a human case of plague; we discuss human health ramifications of plague in rabbits and suggest a potential link between plague and the general long-term decline in rabbit populations, especially for jackrabbits.
Davis et al. (Fri,) studied this question.