tularemia

[too-luh-ree-mee-uh]

noun Pathology, Veterinary Pathology.

a plaguelike disease of rabbits, squirrels, etc., caused by a bacterium, Francisella tularensis, transmitted to humans by insects or ticks or by the handling of infected animals and causing fever, muscle pain, and symptoms associated with the point of entry into the body.

Origin of tularemia

1920–25, Americanism; Tulare, California county where first found + -emia

Related formstu·la·re·mic, tu·la·rae·mic, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Where better to test cultures of anthrax, typhoid, plague and tularemia than on an island in a sea in the middle of the desert?
The Aral Sea's Disappearing Act
Anna Nemtsova
October 4, 2014

"Tularemia, of course," he said, touching his lighter to the tip.
Temple Trouble
Henry Beam Piper
Actually, many kinds of mammals are quite as likely to have tularemia as are rabbits.
A Synopsis of the North American Lagomorpha
E. Raymond Hall
Now that streptomycin is available, cases of tularemia in persons are easily cured.
A Synopsis of the North American Lagomorpha
E. Raymond Hall
No evidence of plague or of tularemia was reported after study of 494 small rodents obtained from 13 localities in the Park.
Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Sydney Anderson

tularemia in Medicine

(tōō′lə-rē′mē-ə)

An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis that chiefly affects rodents but can also be transmitted to humans, in whom it causes intermittent fever and swelling of lymph nodes.

tularemia in Science

[tōō′lə-rē′mē-ə]

An infectious disease characterized by intermittent fever and swelling of the lymph nodes, caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. It chiefly affects wild rabbits and rodents but can also be transmitted to humans through the bite of various insects or through contact with infected animals.