third type is pneumonic plague, which affects the lungs.

DeBess said it's not clear whether the man was bitten by the mouse or by the cat. The feline died, and its body has been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing. The cat was abandoned in the man's neighborhood about six years ago and stuck around. Yeargain said the man and his family had a lot of contact with it. He was bitten on the hand.

"Taking a mouse out of a cat's mouth is probably not a good idea," DeBess said.

Plague bacteria are carried by fleas, which typically infest rodents. People can become infected through flea bites or through contact with an infected animal. Some animals, including dogs, that have been exposed to the bacteriacarry antibodies but do not get the plague and are not infectious.

DeBess said Oregon has a record of plague cases dating to 1934, with about a case a year and some periods when no cases appear. The prevalence of the disease depends in part on the weather and food supplies. When rodents flourish, so do fleas. That increases the likelihood of infection.

A total of four people in Oregon died from the plague since 1934, DeBess said.

The four people sickened in the past 17 years – one in 1995, two in 2010 and one in 2011 – have recovered.

The man is being treated with antibiotics. Other members of his family have been given a preventative dose, Yeargain said. The disease can be spread among people through bodily fluids.

A plague