Molecular epidemiological investigations of plague in Eastern Province of Zambia

Background Plague is a flea-borne zoonotic and invasive disease caused by a gram negative coccobacillus bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Plague has caused three devastating pandemics globally namely: the Justinian, Black Death and Oriental plague. The disease in the Eastern Province of Zambia has been reported in Nyimba and Sinda Districts in the past 15 years. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology of plague in the two affected districts. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), targeting Plasminogen activator gene (pla gene) of Y. pestis, was performed on suspected human bubo aspirates (n = 7), rodents (n = 216), shrews (n = 27) and fleas (n = 1494). Of these, one positive sample from each source or host was subjected to sequencing followed by phylogenetic analysis.