{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,5]],"date-time":"2026-06-05T14:37:39Z","timestamp":1780670259052,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,20]],"date-time":"2023-01-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1674172800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Pasteur Institute of Iran and the Ministry of Health's Center for Communicable Disease Control","award":["810"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["810"]}]},{"name":"Pasteur Institute of Iran and the Ministry of Health's Center for Communicable Disease Control","award":["1744"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1744"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosntds.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS Negl Trop Dis"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\"><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Plague may recur after several decades in its endemic regions; therefore, the continuous monitoring of wildlife is essential, even when no human cases are reported in the old foci. The present study was conducted to monitor rodents and their ectoparasites as well as carnivores to learn about the epidemiology of plague infection in an old focus of Iran.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec002\"><jats:title>Methodology<\/jats:title><jats:p>The present study was conducted from 2019 to 2020 in Takestan county of Qazvin Province in northwestern Iran. Rodents were caught using live traps, and their fleas were separated. Blood and spleen specimens were taken from the captured rodents. Serum samples were also collected from sheepdogs and wild carnivores. The collected samples were tested by culture, serology (ELISA), and molecular methods to detect<jats:italic>Yersinia pestis<\/jats:italic>infection.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec003\"><jats:title>Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>A total of 399 small mammals were caught, of which 68.6% were<jats:italic>Meriones persicus<\/jats:italic>. A total of 2438 fleas were collected from the rodents, 95.3% of which were<jats:italic>Xenopsylla buxtoni<\/jats:italic>. Overall, 23 out of 377 tested rodents (5.7%, CI 95%, 3.9\u20139.0) had IgG antibodies against the<jats:italic>F1<\/jats:italic>antigen of<jats:italic>Y<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>pestis<\/jats:italic>, and all the positive samples belonged to<jats:italic>M<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>persicus<\/jats:italic>. Nine (4.8%) out of 186 collected sera from the sheepdogs\u2019 serum and one serum from the<jats:italic>Canis aureus<\/jats:italic>had specific IgG antibodies against the<jats:italic>F1<\/jats:italic>antigen of<jats:italic>Y<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>pestis<\/jats:italic>. There were no positive cases of<jats:italic>Y<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>pestis<\/jats:italic>in the rodents and fleas based on the culture and real-time PCR.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec id=\"sec004\"><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Serological evidence of<jats:italic>Y<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>pestis<\/jats:italic>circulation was observed in rodents and carnivores (sheepdogs and<jats:italic>C<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>aureus<\/jats:italic>). The presence of potential plague vectors and serological evidence of<jats:italic>Y<\/jats:italic>.<jats:italic>pestis<\/jats:italic>infection in the surveyed animals could probably raise the risk of infection and clinical cases of plague in the studied region. Training health personnel is therefore essential to encourage their detection of possible human cases of the disease.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pntd.0011021","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,20]],"date-time":"2023-01-20T19:03:44Z","timestamp":1674241424000},"page":"e0011021","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pntd.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Serological evidence of Yersinia pestis infection in rodents and carnivores in Northwestern Iran"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Saber","family":"Esmaeili","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6427-8840","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Parisa","family":"Esmaeili","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ahmad","family":"Mahmoudi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ahmad","family":"Ghasemi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ali","family":"Mohammadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amin","family":"Bagheri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aria","family":"Sohrabi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Farshid","family":"Rezaei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hamed","family":"Hanifi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amir Hesam","family":"Neamati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammad Mehdi","family":"Gouya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1997-517X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ehsan","family":"Mostafavi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,20]]},"reference":[{"issue":"6","key":"pntd.0011021.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"820","DOI":"10.1111\/1749-4877.12511","article-title":"Plague reservoir species throughout the world","volume":"16","author":"A Mahmoudi","year":"2021","journal-title":"Integrative Zoology"},{"key":"pntd.0011021.ref002","article-title":"The Host of Plague Natural Focus of Jianchuan, Yunnan [J]","volume":"2","author":"T. 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