Alltop.com

Prairie dogs may look cute and cuddly, but are these rodents harbingers of deathly plague? Plague-infected blood is transmitted between animals through fleas. When plague passes between rodents, such as squirrels and prairie dogs, it's referred to as sylvatic plague. Plague within a rodent species can potentially cross into the human population, most often through flea bites.

Don't worry too much about catching the plague from these animals though. A high mortality rate and the speed with which plague kills prairie dogs are the principal reasons that humans generally don't catch plague from them. Also, North Americans rarely come in close contact with prairie dogs for direct transmission to occur.

Full article at HowStuffWorks.com.

Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.

Photo credit: Fotolia