Plague-infected squirrel shuts Los Angeles park

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**Relapse**

reds8n wrote:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23460709

Parts of a national forest in California have been evacuated and closed down after a squirrel was found to be infected with the plague.

Los Angeles officials say visitors were ordered to leave the Angeles National Forest as a precaution after the rodent was trapped in a routine check.

They said no people in the area were believed to have been infected with the disease, known as the Black Death.

The plague killed as many as 25 million Europeans during the Middle Ages.

It is a bacterial infection which can be transmitted to humans through the bites of infected fleas.

If not treated with antibiotics, it is usually deadly.

There have been only four cases of human plague in Los Angeles County since 1984, none of which were fatal, according to officials.

Further testing of squirrels in the region will be carried out before the campgrounds are re-opened to the public.

Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, told the BBC that agriculture workers would dust squirrel burrows in order to reduce the flea population.

He said that while the area was closed to camping, people would still be able to hike through.

He advised that anyone who wished to do so should use insect repellent and ensure that any pets they bring have a flea collar.

Suzanne Kianpour
BBC News, Los Angeles
It sounds like a screenplay for a Hollywood B-movie: bubonic plague-infected squirrels descend on Los Angeles. But despite the excitement among Angelenos on social media about the "Black Death" being found at a California campsite, health officials say this is not a problem for urban squirrels.

City conditions do not lend themselves to having fleas co-existing in large numbers as they would in a forested area, they say. Even in this forest area where the squirrel was found on Thursday, only five "plague-positive" squirrels have turned up in the last 20 years or so. This particular squirrel is dead - tests are being conducted to determine if it died of natural causes or the plague itself.

.. not something you'd expect to be an issue in this day and age really eh ?

.. I've never trusted Squirrels anyway, they're far too shifty.

I've been innoculated against Bubonic Plague before.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

notprop wrote:
Don't rile it with your trash-talk, it'll take your little pinky off as soon as growl at you!

The most badest ass character at Redwall Abby!

**gorgon**

As I told a co-worker, I'm not worried because I have one of these.

It also keeps my pesky neighbors from bugging me. EVER.

**timetowaste85**

I love how nobody is worried about plague, we just care about how badass badgers are! (And wiener dogs)

**Relapse**

timetowaste85 wrote:
I love how nobody is worried about plague, we just care about how badass badgers are! (And wiener dogs)

To tell the truth, I'm more worried about rabies when I'm out in the woods than plague.

**gorgon**

I'm much more worried about lyme disease.

**Orlanth**

Plague squirrels in LA; by mid next week this will be a film script.

**Frazzled**

Orlanth wrote:
Plague squirrels in LA; by mid next week this will be a film script.

Next on Sci Fi:
Plaguesquirrelnado!!!

**whembly**

gorgon wrote:
I'm much more worried about lyme disease.

Is it because you won't be able to enjoy red meat?

**Orlanth**

Frazzled wrote:
Orlanth wrote:
Plague squirrels in LA; by mid next week this will be a film script.

Next on Sci Fi:
Plaguesquirrelnado!!!

Nah, Plaguesquirrelnado Jihad

**timetowaste85**

Feth the ticks. If they take away my ability to enjoy (and survive) a good burger, I will wage a one-man war on them. I will personally stab their queen viciously until she screams. Then I will feed on her babies!!!!

Or, you know, just not go outside and hide in a pillow-fort.

**Desubot**

Frazzled wrote:
Orlanth wrote:
Plague squirrels in LA; by mid next week this will be a film script.

Next on Sci Fi:
Plaguesquirrelnado!!!

Night of the living Plaguesquirrels

**Azza007**

This thread is full of win.

**kronk**

whembly wrote:
gorgon wrote:
I'm much more worried about lyme disease.

Is it because you won't be able to enjoy red meat?

That's the most horrible thing I've ever ~~heard~~ read!

Oh no!!!!

**mega_bassist**

Can't....stop...laughing

**notprop**

Isn't every thread with squirrels in?

**rubiksnoob**

Palpatine squirrel?

**Monster Rain**

Ouze wrote:
From that citation, it's pretty clear who loses, anyway.

Humanity?

As to the OP, this doesn't surprise me.

Los Angeles is something something wretched hive, something something scum and villainy.

**Jihadin**

Or, you know, just not go outside and hide in a pillow-fort.

**Grey Templar**

grayshadow87 wrote:
Having read through this thread, I now want to own my own raccoon and badger. I live near the woods in a rural town that would probably consider such pets folksy and adorable, so I'm pretty sure there's got to be a statute saying I can do that kind of thing.

I know that, in some places over here anyway, it is legal to have a pet raccoon.

**PrehistoricUFO**

Yersinia Pestis!!!!

I have written extensive treatises on this particular subject during University. Such terror in the mid-1300s . . .

Some day, nature will design another super-bacterium like this and cull the human population on a global level. The bacterium will also manifest itself in several different sets of symptoms and methods of transference just like Pestis did and completely have scientists confused and at a loss. It will have to be adapted to modern levels of hygiene though, that's really the only issue I see standing in the way of it happening.

**Kovnik Obama**

notprop wrote:

Bloody fifth columnist make Angry Badger ANGRY!

Our skunk bear laughs at your honey badger. Then rips some wolves apart just to prove its point.