Zhen Zhen asked some more about the situation of the male passenger at the airport in M Village, and Nima was very cooperative and told everything she knew.

When I returned to the makeshift medical tent from Nima's home, it was completely dark.

On a night in April at the plateau ranch, the cold air hits the people, and there is no electricity here, and the gas lamps brought by the investigation team are the only source of light in the makeshift medical tent.

Under the light of the gas lamp, Ye Zhenzhen and Nan Zhiqiao wore protective clothing, and the samples collected in the afternoon were slightly processed according to the requirements of the rapid test kit, and the sample was added to the reaction, and the colloidal gold reagent produced the results within fifteen minutes.

Yersinia pestis positive.

The cause of the cluster of unexplained deaths in Village M was preliminarily determined to be Y. pestis infection.

Nan Zhiqiao told Lao Zhao and Dorjee the results, and Dorjee began to go door-to-door to the deceased's house, using the confirmed test results to persuade the family to agree to dig up the grave and take the body for sampling.

Because she was not proficient in the local Tibetan language, Zhen Zhen could not help much, and because of the fatigue of the long journey, Nan Zhiqiao insisted that the two of them stay in another makeshift medical tent to rest.

Nan Zhi Qiao neatly landed in the tent and sorted out her sleeping bag, and Zhen Zhen opened the salute she had brought with her, which contained the toiletries for the two of them.

On the stove in the center of the tent, the hot water was steaming, Zhen Zhen poured the hot water, and said to Nan Zhiqiao: "This is the water that Dorjee brought from the small river in the middle of the pasture, boiling, viruses and bacteria, etc., are killed, and you can use it with confidence." ”

Nan Zhiqiao took the water cup with a smile and praised: "The field protection is good. ”

The two of them did a simple wash with hot water, and were about to rest, when there was a rustling sound outside the tent.

"What sound?" Zhen Zhen looked warily at the source of the sound, because the tent was made of white canvas, strong and opaque, and she couldn't see the outside at all.

"Rest assured, security here is good. Nan Zhiqiao smiled and comforted.

"I'm not worried about thieves, it's so remote and desolate here, there won't be any big beasts, right?" Zhen Zhen had just seen a wolf head at Nima's house in the afternoon, and now she heard a strange noise outside the tent, and her first reaction might be that wolves were infested.

"The biggest beast here in the highland ranch is the wolf, but the wolf is a social animal and rarely comes near people. ”

"What could that be?"

"Just go out and see. ”

Nan Zhiqiao lifted the curtain of the tent and looked out.

In the hazy moonlight, not far from the tent, a tan sheepdog was looking down and gnawing on something.

"It's a shepherd dog, like the shepherd dog in Nima's house, what is it gnawing on? It looks like a rabbit. Ye Zhenzhen followed behind Nan Zhiqiao, looking out through the tent curtain.

Nan Zhiqiao walked out of the tent, and Zhen Zhen followed closely.

The two of them tiptoed as lightly as they could, getting closer to the sheepdog.

The shepherd dog has excellent hearing, and Nan Zhiqiao and Zhen Zhen didn't take two steps before they were spotted by the shepherd.

The shepherd dog suddenly raised his head and glared warily at the two approaching men.

Nan Zhi Qiao and Zhen Zhen stopped and realized that the sheepdog had stepped on the ground was a marmot that had been torn in half.

The marmot's yellow-brown fur was red with blood and lay bloodied on the ground.

"It's eating marmots, which are storage hosts for the plague bacillus, which can cause the outbreak to spread. Vera tried to stop the sheepdog, and just took a step forward, the sheepdog realized that something was wrong, took the half-eaten marmot in his mouth, and ran away.

"Chase!" Zhen Zhen didn't think about it, so she chased after her.

Nan Zhiqiao's eyes were not good at night, so he followed behind Zhen Zhen and chased after her.

The sheepdog ran to the hillside near the bank of the river with the dead marmot in its mouth, and over the hillside into a valley.

The valley here is not big, east-west, no more than 200 meters long, less than 50 meters wide, not far from M village, less than a kilometer away, and the shepherd dog stops in the most recessed part of the valley.

By the light of the moon, Zhen Zhen found that there were many marmot corpses lying in the valley, and there were at least 20 of them.

"The smell of rotting animal corpses!" Nan Zhiqiao has bad eyes, but his nose is very smart, and the night wind blows, and the stench of rotting corpses in the valley wafts over.

"It's marmots, there are many, they look like they've been dead for days, some of them have rotted and deformed, and that shepherd dog probably took the dead marmot from this valley. Ye Zhenzhen covered her nose and explained.

"There may also be plague outbreaks among animals here, and we took some samples back to confirm the diagnosis. ”

The two returned to the makeshift medical tent, put on protective suits, carried sampling boxes, and returned to the valley.

The carcasses of marmots in the valley emitted a foul stench, which drifted away from the village because of the wind, and the villagers of Village M did not pay attention to it.

Due to the relatively large size of the marmot, it is inconvenient to carry the whole one back, so Zhen Zhen only collected important parts such as heart, liver, spleen, lymph nodes, etc., and packed them into the sampling test tube.

In the valley, there were quite a lot of dead marmots, after careful counting, a total of 26, Zhen Zhen took samples for each dead marmot, and the whole process took more than an hour.

The two returned to the temporary medical tent with the sampling box, did a simple disinfection treatment, and directly began to test the samples.

Colloidal gold reagent test showed positive Yersinia pestis in the dead marmot in the valley.

The results were consistent with their previous speculation that there was a plague outbreak in the area at the same time.

——

Nan Zhiqiao and Zhen Zhen had just finished testing the specimens of the dead marmots in the valley, and Dorjee and Lao Zhao had also returned from the deceased's house.

Dorjee looked relieved, and Zhen Zhen asked, "Have the deceased's families negotiated?"

"Finally it was agreed, and the families agreed to dig up the grave tomorrow to collect the body. ”

"All six agreed?"

"I went to five houses, and they all agreed, but Nima's family didn't go, and when I went this afternoon, Nima didn't say that as long as other families agreed, his family also agreed, it was too late, it was almost one o'clock in the morning, so I didn't go, and I just notified him directly tomorrow morning. ”

Lao Zhao looked at the two of them who had just taken off their protective clothing, and asked curiously, "Are you doing experiments again?"

Zhen Zhen recounted in detail the results of the malmot that she had just found outside the tent and the marmot carcasses that she later found in the valley, as well as the results of the subsequent tests.

"The carcasses of marmots in the valley should be burned and cleaned up to prevent the spread of epidemics among animals. ”

Lao Zhao: "No problem, let's clean up tomorrow morning, it seems that our investigation team will be divided into two groups, one group will dig graves and collect corpses for sampling, and one group will deal with marmot corpses." ”

——

Early the next morning, the investigation team was divided into two groups, one was a staff member of the L County Disease Control and Control and two doctors from the local health center, who went to the valley not far from the village to dispose of the dead marmot carcass, and the other group, that is, most of the people in the investigation team, Lao Zhao, Duoji, Nan Zhiqiao, Ye Zhenzhen, and local disease control staff, a group of more than 10 people, went to the cemetery to dig up the grave and collect the body.