sylvatic plague

plague (plāg) a severe acute or chronic infectious disease due to Yersinia pestis, beginning with chills and fever, quickly followed by prostration, often with delirium, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea; primarily a disease of rats and other rodents, it is transmitted to humans by flea bites, or communicated from patient to patient.

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bubonic plague  plague with swelling of the lymph nodes, which form buboes in the femoral, inguinal, axillary, and cervical regions; in the severe form, septicemia occurs, producing petechial hemorrhages.

pneumonic plague , pulmonic plague a rapidly progressive, highly contagious pneumonia with extensive involvement of the lungs and productive cough with mucoid, bloody, foamy, plague bacilli-laden sputum.

sylvatic plague  plague in wild rodents, such as the ground squirrel, which serve as a reservoir from which humans may be infected.

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sylvatic plague

[silvat′ik]

Etymology: L, sylva, forest, plaga, stroke

an endemic disease of wild rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected flea. Infection of humans by wild animals is described as a sylvatic stage. It is found on every continent except Australia. See also bubonic plague.

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plague

an epidemic of disease attended by great mortality.

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bubonic plague

an acute febrile, infectious, highly fatal disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis. It is primarily a disease of rats and other rodents, dogs and cats, and is usually spread to humans by fleas. The more common form of plague is the bubonic. There is also a pneumonic type in humans, which can be spread directly from person to person by droplet infection. The clinical signs in all species are fever, vomiting and enlargement of lymph nodes, the buboes that give the disease its name.

cattle plague

see rinderpest.

duck plague

an acute infectious disease of ducks caused by a herpesvirus and characterized by tissue hemorrhages and blood free in body cavities, eruptions on the mucosae of the digestive tract, degeneration of parenchymatous organs and lesions in lymph nodes. Called also duck virus enteritis.

equine plague

see african horse sickness.

fowl plague

see avian influenza.

pneumonic plague

see bubonic plague (above).

septicemic plague

hematogenous spread of infection to many organs may occur without the formation of buboes; occurs in the cat with pulmonary involvement, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and death.

swine plague

see swine plague.

sylvatic plague

bubonic plague in wild animals in uninhabited areas. See also sylvatic plague.

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sylvatic

found in the woods; occurring in animals of the forest.

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sylvatic plague

the disease of wild rats, ground squirrels, mice, marmots, owls, gophers, badgers, rabbits, prairie dogs and chipmunks caused by Yersinia pestis, and which serves as a reservoir for urban rats which are the origin, via the oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), of bubonic plague in humans.

sylvatic rabies

that form of the disease transmitted by forest-dwelling animals, particularly foxes and wolves.

sylvatic ringworm

ringworm in domestic animals transmitted from wild animals.