In December 2017, a dog that had pneumonic plague was brought to a veterinary teaching hospital in northern Colorado, USA. Several factors, including signalment, season, imaging, and laboratory findings, contributed to delayed diagnosis and resulted in potential exposure of >116 persons and 46 concurrently hospitalized animals to Yersinia pestis.
Keywords: Colorado; United States; Yersinia pestis; bacteria; canine; dog; human exposure; plague; pneumonic plague; vector-borne infections; veterinary teaching hospital; zoonoses.