Pet prairie dogs may carry fatal disease

Mary Manning and Stephen Curran

Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

Up to 2,000 prairie dogs infected with tularemia, a potentially fatal disease that can spread to humans, were sent to pet stores in at least nine states including Nevada, health officials said.

No cases of tularemia have been linked to the animals to date, said epidemiologist David Dennis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"These prairie dogs are sold as pets and anyone who has recently handled sick or dead prairie dogs from this facility may be at risk of acquiring tularemia," Dennis said.

There are two pet stores in Las Vegas that sell the animals, neither of which has reported any cases of the disease, said David Thain, state veterinarian for the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

The stores said they had no problems and hadn't received any prairie dogs from the Denton County, Texas distributor that reported the problem.

Ken Foose, owner of Exotic Pets in Las Vegas, a seller of prairie dogs, said his animals all received a clean bill of health from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and called the concern "a big false alarm."

Frank Horvath, owner of Pet Kingdom, the other shop in Las Vegas that sells prairie dogs, said he remembers a similar scare about five years ago, but said it turned out to be a false alarm.

While Thain urges area residents to report sick prairie dogs to the authorities, it is not of immediate concern to Las Vegans, he said, calling the disease "pretty darn rare."

"Up until yesterday I had never even heard of it in prairie dogs," Thain said.

Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is an infectious disease caused by a hardy bacteria. It is typically found in rodents, rabbits and hares.

In a search of records since 1999, health officials couldn't find a report of tularemia in Clark County. Officials said there have been two cases in Nevada since 1997.

People can become infected through the bites of ticks or deer flies which have bitten rodents, or by handling infected animal carcasses. The disease strikes about 200 Americans annually. Most victims live in south-central or western states.

Symptoms appear from one to 14 days after infection and include flu-like fever, chills, head and muscle aches and weakness, the CDC said. The disease is treatable with antibiotics.

If tularemia bacteria reaches the lungs, up to 40 percent of infected people may die if not treated, the CDC said.

Officials said anyone who has handled a sick or dead prairie dog in the last few weeks should contact their state or local health department or physician to learn if they should take antibiotics to prevent tularemia.

Concerns about potential use of the disease as an agent of bioterrorism have thrust it into the spotlight, said Jennifer Sizemore, spokeswoman for the Clark County Department of Health.

The CDC lists the disease as one of the four most likely agents of bioterrorism, along with smallpox, anthrax and plague.

Foose, who estimates he sells about a dozen prairie dogs per year, purchases his animals from a distributor in South Dakota.

The recent notice came after officials found that infected animals were sent from a distributor in Denton County, Texas, over the past two months to Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Washington, Mississippi, Nevada and Illinois. Prairie dogs were also sent to Japan, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Horvath said his shop has not received a visit from the USDA or state representatives, but he said he was assured by his supplier in Texas that his animals had been treated properly and were free from disease, he said.

Animal Exotiques, Horvath's supplier, is in Kerr County, Texas, and has been unaffected by the disease. The supplier who reported the problem was in Denton County, Texas.

"When I heard, I called my guy right away and he assured me," Horvath said.

A prairie dog at Horvath's sells for $149. There are 14 for sale at the store, he said; Foose is sold out.

People like prairie dogs because they make good pets, Horvath said. He said they have the ability to adapt to human sleep schedules, sleeping at night and staying awake during the day. A ferret, although a more popular alternative, sleeps about 20 hours per day, he said.