Two fatal cases of plague after consumption of raw marmot organs

Abstract

Marmots are an important reservoir of Yersinia pestis and a source of human plague in Mongolia. We present two fatal cases of plague after consumption of raw marmot organs and discuss the distribution of natural foci of Y. pestis in Mongolia.

The Multiple Faces of the Marmot: Associations with the Plague, Hunting, and Cosmology in Mongolia

“…This has also been supplemented by a vaccination program. In April-May 2019, a hunter who had been vaccinated with an EV76 Y. pestis vaccine one year previously, died after eating raw marmot organs, which suggests that the vaccine does not necessarily provide people with long-lasting immunity (Kehrmann et al 2020 : 1878-1879). The perceptions of the plague beyond state institutions in pastoral communities in the Mongolian countryside, however, are based on quite different ontological and cosmological frameworks.…”

“…One such example was a woman who had symptoms of the plague with her husband critically ill in hospital, who did not want to admit to authorities that she had consumed raw marmot organs. She subsequently died from the plague, leaving behind four young children (Kehrmann et al 2020 ).…”

“…While in an unrelated case, a 15-year-old boy died in neighbouring Govi-Altai Province after eating hunted marmot with two friends. 1 Between 2012 and 2019, the plague bacteria was prevalent in different kinds of rodent in 137 districts across Mongolia (Kehrmann et al 2020 ).…”

“…More than 40% of the cases of bubonic plague developed into secondary pneumonic plague, while the mortality rate during this period was 70% (WHO 2020 ). Between 1998 and 2020, there were 73 reported plague cases with 59% linked to close contact with infected marmots and 7% from eating raw marmot organs (Kehrmann et al 2020 ), clearly indicating links between the hunting and consumption of marmots and the plague in Mongolia.…”

“…Scientific research on marmots and the plague is found in epidemiologically-related and zoonosis-related scientific articles (Batbold 2002 ; Foggin et al 2000 ; Galdan et al 2010 ; Kehrmann et al 2020 ). Scholars have also made connections between the hunting of marmots and the history of the Manchurian Plague on the Mongolian-Manchu border (Gamsa 2006 ; Lynteris 2013 , 2018 ; Nathan 1967 ; Teh et al 1923 ).…”