By DENISE GRADY and LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
[ from The
New York Times ]
Epidemiologists can be such killjoys. Consider, for instance,
Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, who has been publicly denouncing prairie
dogs since 1997. A prairie dog in a burrow is one thing, but
a prairie dog in the house makes Dr. Osterholm a bit edgy.
The fact that the United States has exported thousands of prairie dogs to Japan, where they are not found in nature and where people find them adorable, gives Dr. Osterholm a full-blown case of the willies. Japan banned prairie dog imports in March, and the European Union halted them yesterday, but researchers still worry about what havoc may be wrought by the animals that have already been shipped overseas. Continued…
