Yersinia pestis: examining wildlife plague surveillance in China and the USA

Abstract

Plague is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis Lehmann and Neumann, 1896. Although it is essentially a disease of rodents, plague can also be transmitted to people. Historically, plague has caused massive morbidity and mortality events in human populations, and has recently been classified as a reemerging disease in many parts of the world. This public health threat has led many countries to set up wild and domestic animal surveillance programs in an attempt to monitor plague activity that could potentially spill over into human populations. Both China and the USA have plague surveillance programs in place, but the disease dynamics differ in each country. We present data on plague seroprevalence in wildlife and review different approaches for plague surveillance in the 2 countries. The need to better comprehend plague dynamics, combined with the fact that there are still several thousand human plague cases per year, make well-designed wildlife surveillance programs a critical part of both understanding plague risks to humans and preventing disease outbreaks in the future.

Lessons Learned from Historic Plague Epidemics: The Relevance of an Ancient Disease in Modern Times

“…Even in developed countries, community outreach and public health workers have frequently alluded to the importance of these issues during the past decades. In a recent review by Bevins and colleagues, the importance as well as success of robust, well-designed and funded surveillance systems has been highlighted, using the plague surveillance systems in the USA and China as examples [133]. Another extremely successful plague surveillance system existed during the time of the Soviet Union; this "anti-plague" system, founded on the basis of the plague surveillance infrastructure of the Russian Empire, was considered an important adjunct component to the Soviet Bioweapons program [78].…”

“…Based on the understanding that plague is a zoonotic disease with a complex transmission cycle, wildlife surveillance has therefore been recognized as a critical component to better understand the pathogen and to detect the occurrence of epizootics in early stages of their development. Again, both the United States and China developed complex wildlife surveillance systems to monitor the prevalence of vectors and plague in rodents in endemic regions of their respective countries [133]. In a recent review, the authors showed that both countries, and China in particular demonstrated through their programs the ability to implement early warning systems for increased plague risk, when closely monitoring the levels of fleas and rodent hosts [133].…”

“…Again, both the United States and China developed complex wildlife surveillance systems to monitor the prevalence of vectors and plague in rodents in endemic regions of their respective countries [133]. In a recent review, the authors showed that both countries, and China in particular demonstrated through their programs the ability to implement early warning systems for increased plague risk, when closely monitoring the levels of fleas and rodent hosts [133].…”

Vaccines for emerging pathogens: prospects for licensure

“…In turn, individuals with pneumonic plague can transmit this by aerosol droplet to others, to establish a primary pneumonic plague infection. Each year, a few cases of plague are also reported in the Southwestern United States, where the disease has been endemic in the rodent population since the late 1800s [42]. As well as infecting the rodent population, infected fleas can spread Y. pestis to other wildlife species (e.g.…”

Plague risk in the western United States over seven decades of environmental change

“…The United States is the perfect system to test this approach, as data in this region are particularly abundant; human case data goes back over a century, to plague’s first introduction on the Pacific coast in early 20 th Century 50,51,26 . Moreover, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has collected plague seropositivity data from wildlife for multiple decades through the USDA National Wildlife Disease Program 52 . Combined, these national datasets include more records than many global studies of pathogen distributions 38 , making this system an ideal testing ground.…”