Found this on the NoDak site.
Badlands ferrets hit by plague
Associated Press
Published Sunday, May 25, 2008
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Sylvatic plague that’s been confirmed in prairie dogs likely has infected some of the endangered black-footed ferrets in southwest South Dakota, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service official said.
The plague was confirmed last week in Conata Basin just south of Badlands National Park.
Wildlife experts haven’t been able to survey the area yet for evidence of plague in ferrets, said Fish and Wildlife biologist Scott Larson of Pierre.
“We kind of suspect, if past history at other sites shows, once you are able to see those dead prairie dogs on the surface, the ferrets probably have already been infected in that area. I almost hate to say that,” Larson said.
Plague wiped out black-footed ferret populations at three reintroduction sites in Montana, Larson said.
Ferrets get plague much like prairie dogs, Larson said. They can get it from fleas that carry the disease or by eating dead prairie dogs infected with plague. They can also catch it from each other through coughing and sneezing. Prairie dogs are the main source of food for ferrets.
“We kind of suspect that’s how the big die-offs occur,” Larson said.
The federal government has spent millions of dollars on the ferret recovery program. Once believed to be extinct, a small colony of black-footed ferrets was found in western Wyoming in the 1980s. The ferret reintroduction in Conata Basin began in the mid-1990s.
The ferret population in the basin had climbed to nearly 300 by the end of last year, the largest in the world.
Wildlife experts have called Conata Basin the most successful ferret reintroduction site in the world, largely because plague had seemed to stay out of South Dakota.
Fish & Wildlife Service officials say trapping and relocating the ferrets is an option but not a good option this time of year because females are either pregnant or recently gave birth. Also, ferrets are not very active above ground in the spring, said Randy Griebel, another FWS biologist.
“They can be hard to get,” Larson said. “Because we’ve got active plague, we would need to quarantine them somewhere. There would be a lot of issues, but they are not necessarily insurmountable.”
The most likely first response will be to dust prairie dog burrows with a pesticide that kills fleas, Larson said.
