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3、The Plague Bacteria Starved Fleas
瘟疫病毒让跳蚤们挨饿
Bubonic plague is spread by fleas, but the whole process is actually a lot more complicated and disturbing than that description suggests.
黑死病（腹股沟淋巴结炎性鼠疫）经由跳蚤们传播，但是整个传播过程实际上要比描述的更加复杂、更加让人恐慌。
Fleas survive on the blood of animals, and so does the plague bacteria. Once a flea ingests diseased blood, the infection goes to work on the flea itself. It begins to reproduce in the flea’s stomach, living in the digestive tract of the insect and effectively blocking its digestive process. This often kills the flea, but in the meantime, it starves it. This means that the flea bites more often and looks for more animals for nourishment, spreading the disease faster than a flea with a normal life cycle.
跳蚤们靠动物的血液生存，瘟疫病毒也是如此存活。一旦跳蚤吸食了被感染的血液，这只跳蚤便被感染了。病毒在跳蚤的胃里繁殖，继而生存在跳蚤的消化道里。跳蚤的消化过程便被大大滴限制了。通常这样会杀死被感染的跳蚤，在此期间跳蚤会遭受饥饿煎熬。这意味着被感染的跳蚤要寻找和叮咬更多的动物来维持营养，所以它们传播疾病的速度要比正常的跳蚤快很多。
Cats and rats are particularly susceptible to the plague virus, which further helps it spread. When the flea’s usual host—rodents—start dying out in massive amounts, it seeks other hosts, pushing the disease to domesticated animals and humans. (Dogs have a natural resistance to the plague bacteria, and even if they’re bit and are repeatedly exposed, they usually don’t become sick.)
猫和老鼠尤其容易感染到瘟疫病毒，这进一步帮助了病毒的传播。当跳蚤的宿主（啮齿目动物）大量死去，跳蚤便去寻找其他的宿主，于是瘟疫便被传给家养的动物和人类。（狗对瘟疫病毒有一种天然的抵抗力，即使它们经常被跳蚤叮咬，被感染瘟疫病毒，它们也不会生病。）
