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Monday, September 24, 2007

Bubonic Plague and Mongolian Cooking

There exists an excellent and widely-read infectious disease notification listserv, published by the International Society for Infectious Diseases. It's named ProMED, and it covers pretty much any interesting disease outbreak going on in the world. The best part is actually the commentary--- once a report makes it onto ProMED, other readers are able to contribute their opinions and findings back to the group. The listserv's editors are all experienced infectious disease specialists, and they often offer useful commentary as well.

This afternoon's ProMED contained a fun little report of bubonic plague in Mongolia--- apparently, a 16-year-old boy was skinning a marmot his father had caught and cut his finger in the process. Marmots apparently serve as the main plague reservoir in Mongolia, and our unfortunate Mongolian teenager soon found himself infected with glandular bubonic plague. Luckily, he lived in an area with plenty of doctors and medicines, and recovered nicely.

So far, this is an interesting but not particularly funny disease report. Immediately following the initial report, however, were the ProMED editors' comments:



[Plague is endemic in Mongolian marmots and their fleas, but as roast
marmot ("boodog" in Mongolian) is a popular dish there, some unlucky
hunters catch it every year. See marmot photo at
<http://www.bobak.ru/pics/view/Marmota%20sibirica.jpg>;
and recipes at
<http://www.e-mongol.com/mongolia_culture_cooking-recipes.htm>;
- - Mod.JW]



Yup, you read that correctly: a link to actual roast marmot recipes, following a link about a case of one of the world's most feared pathogens! The recipes themselves sound pretty good--- apparently, standard marmot-roasting practice involves packing the body cavity of a cleaned and de-boned marmot with extremely hot rocks, sealing it up again, and letting it cook from within, making for very tender and tasty meat. Best of all, according to the recipe, this dish (called boodog) is a risky one to prepare: there is a chance that an improperly-packed marmot could explode during cooking due, one imagines, to gas buildup.

Three cheers for infectious disease epidemiology! One learns new things every day.