[The efficiency of Rhadinopsylla rothschildi and R. dahurica fleas as vectors of the causative agent of plague in a Transbaikal natural focus].

Experiments have shown that a block of proventriculus arises in 2.1 to 12.5% of infected fleas of R. rothschildi and in 7.2 to 10.5% of R. dahurica. These fleas transmit the plague agent to different animals (Brandt's vole, narrow-skulled vole, Dahurian suslik). The plague microbe is preserved in the organism of infected insects till the end of the experiment, 74 and 24 days respectively. Therefore, the fleas can play a part in the maintenance of plague epizootics in the Transbaikal natural nidus.