Rodents can also carry bubonic plague (transmitted by flea bites).
The southwest does have rodents with bubonic plague.

Life is fatal.

On Jan 17, 2007, at 3:44 PM, Anthony Egeln wrote:

> uerto Canyon hantavirus...deadly, spread by deer mice and named
> after the area of the Southwest where it killed several young
> Native-Americans back in the 90's.  We flapped about it when I was
> OIC of San Nicolas Island off the coast of Ventura County.  We had
> deer mice but it turned out our mice only carried a less risky form
> of the hantavirus.  Read: