Skip to content
Do you have adblock enabled?
 
If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(CNN)   Oversized ground-rats spreading the plague in Denver. Take that, pizza rat   (cnn.com) divider line
    More: Strange, Black Death, Yersinia pestis, prairie dog colonies, Mammal, Unaffected refuge areas, Middle Ages, evidence of fleas, small mammals  
•       •       •

3090 clicks; posted to Main » on 18 Aug 2019 at 5:35 AM (4 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Copy Link



28 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
Boo_Guy  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (4)  
2019-08-18 5:39:05 AM  
Could be worse, what if they were oversized air rats instead?

Yea, that'd be a real problem then.
 
2019-08-18 6:07:03 AM  
Damn, serious shiite they are talking about! Doesn't take much for something like this to spread. Pets, etc.
Would have never guessed..and this is kinda important news...seems right?
 
moku9  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (4)  
2019-08-18 6:44:54 AM  
Lived for years in Ft. Collins CO.. "Giant rat", villages all over town with signs, "caution plague detected here, do not enter". To heck with climbing 14'ers, the real adventure in CO is hanging in prairie dog villages!
 
2019-08-18 6:46:02 AM  
Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.
 
2019-08-18 7:22:26 AM  
Chew, devour, chew, devour....
 
2019-08-18 7:29:21 AM  

BeardedDragonLizardMan: Damn, serious shiite they are talking about! Doesn't take much for something like this to spread. Pets, etc.
Would have never guessed..and this is kinda important news...seems right?


No. Plague is endemic in Colorado and cycles in waves every few years in the prairie dog populations. There's always a handful of cases (typically bubonic), but in developing countries they're hardly ever fatal unless they go untreated. I was exposed during my residency about 15yrs ago (in Fort Collins), got prophylactic doxycycline for a couple of weeks. In 2014 there was a small outbreak of pneumonic plague (4-5 cases) linked to a dog that died.

There are several places around the world where plague is a serious issue, one of those believe it or not is Madagascar (shut down everything). In 2017 they had a pretty serious outbreak of primarily pneumonic plague in several cities, several hundred confirmed cases and likely thousand(s?) of unconfirmed? But Madagascar typically sees 2-400 cases of bubonic plague a year.

The biggest thing helping to manage an outbreak is public awareness, which is exactly what this news piece is meant to do.
 
2019-08-18 7:41:59 AM  

walkerhound: BeardedDragonLizardMan: Damn, serious shiite they are talking about! Doesn't take much for something like this to spread. Pets, etc.
Would have never guessed..and this is kinda important news...seems right?

No. Plague is endemic in Colorado and cycles in waves every few years in the prairie dog populations. There's always a handful of cases (typically bubonic), but in developing countries they're hardly ever fatal unless they go untreated. I was exposed during my residency about 15yrs ago (in Fort Collins), got prophylactic doxycycline for a couple of weeks. In 2014 there was a small outbreak of pneumonic plague (4-5 cases) linked to a dog that died.

There are several places around the world where plague is a serious issue, one of those believe it or not is Madagascar (shut down everything). In 2017 they had a pretty serious outbreak of primarily pneumonic plague in several cities, several hundred confirmed cases and likely thousand(s?) of unconfirmed? But Madagascar typically sees 2-400 cases of bubonic plague a year.

The biggest thing helping to manage an outbreak is public awareness, which is exactly what this news piece is meant to do.


*developed.
 
Trotline [TotalFark] [OhFark]  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (0)  
2019-08-18 7:56:34 AM  
Prairie dogs have the plague?   That was news when Coronado was cruising the area.
 
L Buff  
Smartest (1)   Funniest (1)  
2019-08-18 7:59:50 AM  
I live in Westminster CO, a suburb about 10 miles northwest of downtown Denver. There's a large prairie dog colony about a mile from my house. When I go for a walk I avoid it like the plague.

/see what I did there?
 
2019-08-18 8:04:12 AM  

Trotline: Prairie dogs have the plague?   That was news when Coronado was cruising the area.


Plague didn't arrive to the continental US until ~1900 (San Francisco).  Colorado some time later.

www-tc.pbs.orgView Full Size
www-tc.pbs.orgView Full Size
 
2019-08-18 8:21:14 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size


/wanted for questioning
 
2019-08-18 8:40:10 AM  
It is illegal to kill Prairie Dogs in Boulder, CO.  They, however, deserve the Plague!
 
Oreminer  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (3)  
2019-08-18 8:45:49 AM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2019-08-18 9:07:56 AM  
Bubonic plague AKA The Black Death AKA Yersinia Pestis is not a huge deal in developed countries. We have antibiotics to treat the few people who catch it and our living conditions have vastly improved in the last several hundred years so we're not wallowing in fleas. Kind of like armadillos can carry leprosy but we're not all freaking out over it.
 
SwiftFox  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (1)  
2019-08-18 9:09:09 AM  
Saw a small tourist-attraction prairie dog town at a fuel station/diner/souvenirs/get-yer-beef-jerky-here place being de-flead. Couple spoons of cheap garden Sevin dust from a big canister that has cat and dog flea powder way down on the approved uses list, a leaf blower, brief poof from other connected den openings. Ta-da, prairie dogs that don't spend all their time scratching.
 
MiamiChef  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (0)  
2019-08-18 10:51:52 AM  
Just you wait. In two weeks the band Phish is playing in Commerce, CO at Dick's Sporting Good Park which is ground zero for the Plague outbreak.

I fully expect a Wook Plague hybrid to spread and take out half the US.

Wooks!!

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2019-08-18 11:07:28 AM  

L Buff: I live in Westminster CO, a suburb about 10 miles northwest of downtown Denver. There's a large prairie dog colony about a mile from my house. When I go for a walk I avoid it like the plague.

/see what I did there?


Howdy, neighbor!

I like that your description makes it entirely impossible to narrow down which part you're in, since those little F'ers are everywhere.
 
Gyrfalcon  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (1)  
2019-08-18 11:16:02 AM  

MaelstromFL: It is illegal to kill Prairie Dogs in Boulder, CO.  They, however, deserve the Plague!


Yeah, the plague already wiped out the Denver colony.

This iteration is a wee bit more virulent, it seems. Looks like all the rat tails I've been sacrificing to Xipe Totec have at last paid off.
 
2019-08-18 12:01:50 PM  
Take me down to the prairie dog city
Where the grass is green and the plague is pretty
 
Bermuda59 [TotalFark]  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (1)  
2019-08-18 12:23:42 PM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
MBooda  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (0)  
2019-08-18 1:17:31 PM  

sinner4ever: Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.


They do, in Louisiana. We also have flame spurts and lightning sand.

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
MBooda  
Smartest (1)   Funniest (0)  
2019-08-18 1:19:58 PM  
The Firesign Theatre- "Beat The Reaper"
Youtube D3zZ_ih0Jpc
 
yug0w0lf  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (1)  
2019-08-18 2:46:44 PM  

sinner4ever: Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.


Roll for perception
 
2019-08-18 3:20:55 PM  
They don't BBQ evenly.
Some are too fat, others too lean.
 
2019-08-18 3:40:45 PM  
Meanwhile, in Denver

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
bigdog1960  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (2)  
2019-08-18 9:08:22 PM  
30 years ago I was living in Denver, on live TV reporter was asking where the prairie dogs would be relocated. Workers was using a vacuum to suck them out of the holes. Worker calmly said they did not survive the process, the reporter was speechless and they cut back to the studio. Anchor stumbled through some unintelligent comments and switched to another story. It was hilarious.
 
2019-08-18 10:09:20 PM  

Boo_Guy: Could be worse, what if they were oversized air rats instead?

Yea, that'd be a real problem then.


thesun.co.ukView Full Size


Oversized air rat devouring a regular one...
 
Yeoman  
Smartest (0)   Funniest (0)  
2019-08-19 3:16:18 AM  

MBooda: sinner4ever: Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.

They do, in Louisiana. We also have flame spurts and lightning sand.

[Fark user image 245x150]


We told you to avoid Taco Bell!
 
Displayed 28 of 28 comments

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

This thread is archived, and closed to new comments.

Continue Farking





  1. Links are submitted by members of the Fark community.

  2. When community members submit a link, they also write a custom headline for the story.

  3. Other Farkers comment on the links. This is the number of comments. Click here to read them.

  4. Click here to submit a link.