Pueblo County prairie canine get reward of peanut butter-flavored plague vaccine pellets

Some prairie canine in Pueblo County found some tasty treats watching for them on Thursday — chunk-sized snacks that may additionally retailer their lives.

Colorado Parks and natural world despatched biologists to a ranch in Pueblo County to distribute little peanut butter pellets laced with plague vaccine.

The plague remains around in the western U.S. and is carried on the whole through rodents. in accordance with the CDC, a couple of human instances develop every yr following publicity to contaminated wild rodents or fleas.

hence the blueberry-sized pellets.

CPW says the pellets are intended to be eaten by way of black-tailed prairie dogs and different small mammals. Prarie dogs, CPW says, are "so critical to our ecosystem." they create habitat for other species, equivalent to endangered black-footed ferrets and burrowing owls, and are important to the diets of many animals, together with ferrets, raptors, coyotes, bobcats and rattlesnakes.

After two days on the ranch, CPW says it's sending its crew to Holly, in eastern Colorado, to unfold greater of tasty peanut butter pellets.