Could sleeping with your pet make you sick?

Researchers say, yes, although the risk of contracting one of the diseases your pet could give you is quite rare.

"There are private places in the household, and I think our pets should not go beyond next to the bed," says Bruno Chomel, a professor at the University of California-Davis school of veterinary medicine, who found that pets can give humans a number of illnesses, including bubonic plague. "Having a stuffed animal in your bed is fine, not a real one."

In addition to contracting so-called "Black Death," Chomel and co-author Ben Sun, chief veterinarian with the California Department of Public Health, learned that those in close contact with their pets could be at risk of chagas disease, which can cause life-threatening heart and digestive system disorders, and cat-scratch disease, which can also come from being licked by infected cats.

To read the full USA Today story — Go Here Now.