General Impact
Yersinia pestis is the causal agent of plague in humans and other mammals, although the overwhelming proportion of attention and research has focused on its impacts on humans. Y. pestis is recognized as causing three major disease pandemics in the 1st, 14th-17th and 19th centuries, resulting in around 200 million deaths. The second pandemic known as the Black Death caused the deaths of over 30% of the population of Europe. While Y. pestis no longer causes problems of such magnitude, it is still a public health concern in Africa, Asia and South America (Titball and Williamson 2001). There are at least 2000 cases of plague reported annually. In the United States it is a rare disease of humans, with only 112 cases reported between 1988-2002, although fatality rates remain high (MNWR 2002 in Eisen et al. 2007-B). Biologists are increasingly realizing that wild mammal species are highly susceptible to Y. pestis. In North America more than half of rodent species of conservation concern occur within the range of Y. pestis. The impacts of plague on these populations are not well understood, but certain features increase the vulnerability of rodent species to plague. These include low natural resistance, high population densities, coloniality and sociality, abundant flea vectors, and lack of ability to cope with high demographic or environmental stochasticity. Please follow this link for more details on the impacts of Yersinia pestis.
Location Specific Impacts:Los Angeles (United States (USA)) 
Pathogenic: From the first reports of plague in San Francisco in 1900 "successive outbreaks of varying sizes occurred in urban areas along the Pacific coast, including San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles until 1925, resulting in at least 494 human cases and a case-fatality rate of more than 50% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, unpublished data in Adjemian et al. 2007) Oakland (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: From the first reports of plague in San Francisco in 1900 "successive outbreaks of varying sizes occurred in urban areas along the Pacific coast, including San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles until 1925, resulting in at least 494 human cases and a case-fatality rate of more than 50% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, unpublished data in Adjemian et al. 2007) Arizona (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Unconfirmed epizootics with die-offs of ground squirrels were observed as early as 1929 in Oregon and Nevada, 1930 in Washington, 1932 in Idaho, and 1933 in Montana, and die-offs of prairie dogs suspected to be caused by plague were reported in Arizona in 1932 Colorado (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: At Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, plague epizootics causing 95-99% prairie dog mortality have been documented since the mid-1970s, affecting as little as a few hectares to large scale epizootics of 1,000 ha (United States Fish and Wildlife Service, unpublished data in Seery et al. 2003). Prairie dogs are considered a high priority species in this prairie ecosystem as they provide a prey base for a variety of predators in the ecosystem as well as habitat infrastructure to burrowing owls and mountain plovers through their burrowing activities Idaho (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Unconfirmed epizootics with die-offs of ground squirrels were observed as early as 1929 in Oregon and Nevada, 1930 in Washington, 1932 in Idaho, and 1933 in Montana, and die-offs of prairie dogs suspected to be caused by plague were reported in Arizona in 1932 Kansas (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Since the introduction of Y. pestis to California and western states in the early 1900s, plague epizootics have been documented in woodrat (Neotoma spp.), deer mice (Peromyscus spp.), ground squirrel (Spermophilus spp.), and prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) populations s far east as Oklahoma and Kansas by the 1940s. Montana (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Unconfirmed epizootics with die-offs of ground squirrels were observed as early as 1929 in Oregon and Nevada, 1930 in Washington, 1932 in Idaho, and 1933 in Montana, and die-offs of prairie dogs suspected to be caused by plague were reported in Arizona in 1932 Oklahoma (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Since the introduction of Y. pestis to California and western states in the early 1900s, plague epizootics have been documented in woodrat (Neotoma spp.), deer mice (Peromyscus spp.), ground squirrel (Spermophilus spp.), and prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) populations s far east as Oklahoma and Kansas by the 1940s. Oregon (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Unconfirmed epizootics with die-offs of ground squirrels were observed as early as 1929 in Oregon and Nevada, 1930 in Washington, 1932 in Idaho, and 1933 in Montana, and die-offs of prairie dogs suspected to be caused by plague werereported in Arizona in 1932.
Although plague is relatively rare in wild ungulates, Yersinia pestis infection manifesting as ocular lesions was identified in three free-ranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Wyoming and Oregon. Washington (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: From the first reports of plague in San Francisco in 1900 "successive outbreaks of varying sizes occurred in urban areas along the Pacific coast, including San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles until 1925, resulting in at least 494 human cases and a case-fatality rate of more than 50% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, unpublished data in Adjemian et al. 2007) Wyoming (United States (USA))
Pathogenic: Causes bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plagues in humans and other mammals. In Thunder Basin National Grassland Y. pestis causes plague epizootics in prairie dogs populations.
Although plague is relatively rare in wild ungulates, Yersinia pestis infection manifesting as ocular lesions was identified in three free-ranging mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Wyoming and Oregon.
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