A talented high school athlete has died after contracting the plague at his family's Colorado ranch.
Taylor Gaes, 16, from Fort Collins succumbed to the disease just four days after he started suffering from 'flu-like symptons' despite being in 'superb health'.
The sophomore was a top sportsman at Poudre High School, playing for the varsity baseball team as a pitcher and the football team as quarterback.
His coaches said with his 6ft 4in frame, he was destined for to play college sport, but his career was cut tragically short by the freak illness.
Poudre varsity baseball coach Russell Haigh told the Denver Post: 'We often talk about Taylor's potential as an athlete but he was much more than that. He was a good friend to all of our players. He was a special young man.'
Katie O'Donnell, a Larimer County Health Department spokeswoman said Gaes didn't show the normal signs of the plague - swollen lymph nodes.
Instead he suffered from muscle aches and pains, meaning the authorities were not alerted to the dangers sooner.
He died June 8 of septicemic plague, a fast-moving form of the bacterial infection. Officials say the illness was probably the result of a flea-bite, or contact Gaes could have made with a dead animal.
On average, only seven people contract the plague in the U.S. every year and the last time there was a case in Larimer County was in 1999. Only three have been logged in the last 30 years.
The youngster's family decided to release his name after hundreds of mourners turned up to their farm to show their respects.
Their tragic announcement was made in a bid to warn those who were on their land to seek medical attention.
Hundreds of people turned up to a ceremony on their ranch where his ashes were scattered, but O'Donnell insisted the chance of contracting the illness was unlikely.
She said: 'They had this big ceremony that a few hundred people attended. They would hate to see people get sick from it. There's a very slim chance that anyone would.'
Friends paid tribute to the teenager on an obituary page.
Sidney Halisbeck wrote: 'I was Taylor's first best friend and also the one who started calling him TayTay not knowing it would stick.
'It still seems unreal that my TayTay is gone, but I know he is always with us. I love you TayTay!'
Haigh told The Post Gaes' death had hit his teammates hard.
'They are doing well. That's not to say they do not have pain. Young men are amazingly resilient,' he said.
'I think it helps that they continue to play baseball. I think that's what Taylor would want them to do.'
His family have set up a donation page in a bid to raise $20,000 to to pay youth baseball league entrance fees for kids.
As of Saturday evening, they had raised $2,120.
The crowdfunding page reads: 'Taylor Gaes loved the game of baseball. It was a passion that lived in every part of his life and person.
'The belief that any kid should have the opportunity to play the game of baseball was a passion of his.
'He never understood why money should play a factor in a young person's ability to experience the joys of the game.'
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