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Gebbiena M Bron

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In 2013, a large blinded, paired placebo-controlled field trial for the prairie dog oral sylvatic plague vaccine started in the Western US. On 17 paired plots, vaccine and placebo plots, small rodents were trapped annually for 3-5 consecutive nights (when weather allowed). Up on capture, we documented the trap numbers and the processed animals. We noted standard biological information (species, sex, age) and took samples (fleas, blood, hair and whiskers). When logistics allowed we also trapped diurnal animals. Hair and whisker samples were taped to a transparent sheet and scored for the presence (high dose 1, low dose 2) or absence (0) of Rhodamine B fluorescence (RB dataset)
In 2013, a large blinded, paired placebo-controlled field trial for the prairie dog oral sylvatic plague vaccine started in the Western US. On 17 paired plots, vaccine and placebo plots, small rodents were trapped annually for 3-5 consecutive nights (when weather allowed) and high elevation Utah plots where plague was active were more frequently trapped in 2014 and 2015. In the dataset the prevalence of flea infestation was recorded for the first annual summer sampling, it was summarized for all small rodent species caught and deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). Infestations were either for all flea species collected or for Aetheca wagneri only (our most abundant flea species). We used this data to assess if plague...
This data was used to investigate the invasion of a non-native disease, plague, to a keystone species, prairie dogs, in Conata Basin, South Dakota, United States. We documented the resulting extent of fragmentation and habitat loss in western grasslands using colony boundaries mapped by the USFS every one to three years from 1993 - 2015. Specifically, we assessed how the arrival of plague in 2008, affected the size, shape, and aggregation of prairie dog colonies, an animal species known to be highly susceptible to plague. As expected the colony complex and the patches in colonies became smaller and more fragmented after the arrival of plague; the total area of each colony and the average area per patch within a...
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