The Change Mariner

Monkeypox forces rodent-import ban

OrlandoSentinel.com:

Prairie dogs, a symbol of the American West, of wide-open spaces and home on the range, this week became something else: outlaws. The federal government Wednesday banned the sale of prairie dogs and other rodents possibly linked to a rare virus that has spread recently to people living in the Midwest. Now, epidemiologists are searching 15 states, including Florida, for more animals that might have been exposed.