Russia reacts to bubonic plague outbreaks in China & Mongolia by catching & testing Siberian rodents

Russian authorities have captured and examined rodents in Siberia's Buryatia, after the bubonic plague was detected in neighboring China and Mongolia. Health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said the animals tested negative.

Last week, Mongolia confirmed that it had found two suspected cases of the bubonic plague, and was locking down an entire region of the country. Buryatia, which is located 4,000km east of Moscow, shares a border of more than 1,000km with the central Asian nation.

Another neighbor of Russia, China, also recorded a possible case of the bubonic plague. China does not border Buryatia.

The latest cases of the plague are thought to have been caused by the preparation or consumption of a marmot, a small rodent.

The local Rospotrebnadzor office announced that it had conducted a “zoological and epizootological examination” of the captured rodents in the Russia-Mongolia border regions. The results of the study came up negative.

The watchdog also noted that the risk of importing the plague into Russia is minimal, as borders are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, the chief infectious diseases specialist at Russia's Federal Biomedical Agency, Vladimir Nikiforov, declared that the plague is “absolutely no threat” to Russia, as it is “not transmitted from person to person.” The bubonic plague primarily affects wild rodents and spreads from one animal to another through fleas.

If a human is infected with the plague, symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting. If left untreated, the disease is often deadly.

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