Dusting for plague could start soon

Rancher blames Forest Service for plague outbreak.

By Steve Miller, Journal staff | Thursday, May 29, 2008

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Crews soon will begin spreading an insecticide on prairie dog mounds in Conata Basin in an effort to prevent plague from killing more endangered black-footed ferrets in the basin, just south of Badlands National Park.

Sylvatic plague, discovered in South Dakota in 2004, was confirmed earlier this month in Conata Basin, home to what has been considered the most successful black-footed ferret reintroduction site in the world.

The federal government has spent millions of dollars reintroducing and protecting the ferrets in Conata Basin, which is part of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Dusting has been delayed by heavy rains, which turn the ground in the basin into a sticky goo.

Federal officials plan to train crews today to use ATVs to spread the insecticide, which kills fleas that can carry sylvatic plague to prairie dogs as well as ferrets.

More rains could continue delaying the dusting.

The disease already is killing prairie dogs, which are the primary food source for the ferrets, officials have confirmed.

The area affected so far, generally on both sides of S.D. Highway 44 between Scenic and Interior, was known to be home to about 30 of the endangered ferrets last year, according to Scott Larson, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Pierre. Those ferrets could have died of the plague, but there is no evidence so far that they did, Larson said.

Prairie dogs often will die on the surface, but ferrets typically die underground and are never found, he said.

Larson also said crews will begin vaccinating a small number of Conata Basin ferrets that are already being tracked for research projects. He said the vaccine is effective in preventing plague. "The challenge is, you've got to vaccinate them twice, about two weeks apart," Larson said.

The ferret population had reached about 300 animals last fall.

Recent mapping now shows the plague area at 4,000 acres, up from 3,200 acres identified earlier, according to Kevin Atchley, Wall District ranger, for the

Buffalo Gap National Grassland, which includes Conata Basin.

Atchley said the increased number of acres is likely because of improved mapping as well as to the spread of the plague, primarily to the west.

Crews from the Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, Badlands National Park and the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will dust about 10,000 acres with the insecticide, Larson said. The effort likely will take all summer, he said.

Sylvatic plague is generally not seen as a major threat to humans, but it can infect pets and spread from them to humans.

Plague can enter a person through a break in the skin by direct contact with the tissue or body fluids of a plague-infected animal. Plague can also be transmitted by inhaling infected droplets expelled by coughing by a person or animal, especially domestic cats with pneumonic plague.

There have been no cases of plague reported in humans since the disease was found in western Custer County in 2004.

Officials with the Forest Service, which manages Buffalo Gap National Grassland, and the National Park Service are warning visitors to the area to not handle dead prairie dogs and to keep their pets out of areas occupied by prairie dogs.

Dusting to kill fleas along Highway 44 is also aimed at reducing the danger to humans, according to a Fish & Wildlife Service news release.

Larson said the cost of the insecticide alone for the dusting likely will run from $35,000 to $40,000.

Meanwhile, Marvin Jobgen, a Conata Basin rancher and longtime critic of the U.S. Forest Service's management of the Conata Basin's prairie dogs, said the lack of control efforts likely led to the plague outbreak.

"The landowners down here told them for years that if they didn't manage prairie dogs this was going to happen," Jobgen said. "Now they're risking jeopardizing a $25 million ferret reintroduction project."

But Atchley said he doesn't think the Forest Service's management played a role in the spread of plague. "My view is that plague can occur regardless of the population, high or low, high density or low density. It has been advancing for a little over 100 years now, so I don't relate it to our management."

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com.