Pneumonia In Bighorn Sheep

[Duckhunter14]

I start this thread not to start a bashing session. I would simply like to learn what people know to be fact; since I am not well educated in the subject. I am also contacting the state, but I know there are a lot of extremely well educated individuals on this forum, and I would like to hear their input.

I was driving east bound on I-90 a couple weekends back, heading to Montana for a spring bear hunt. I was coming down the grade towards Vantage when I noticed a mass of animals on the North side of I-90, in the same area where I often see elk wintering. I quickly realized the mass of white puff balls was domestic sheep. My first thought was whoa, why are they so close to the river and the (to my knowledge) healthy herd of bighorn sheep in the Quilomene. I have read numerous articles about domestic sheep and the dangers of Pneumonia spreading from domestic herds to native populations. But I am by no means an expert. The domestic sheep were not right at the river, but close enough to raise concern. Enough concern to me that I haven't been able to let it go and decided to do some digging, as well as asking the HuntWA experts for their input.

So my question is this; are there laws limiting the area that a sheep herder must keep his domestic sheep from wild sheep? I am not interested in a debate about grazing on BLM or state lands or anything else not related to the relationship between domestic sheep and the possible ramifications of letting them co-mingle with native wild bighorn sheep.

Obviously I understand that the owner of the sheep needs to make a living and I in no way want to affect his livelihood, but I think with what we know (or think we know, I'm finding conflicting opinions on the worldwide web) that letting domestic sheep graze in close proximity to wild sheep is flirting with disaster and I would think that even if we don't know definitively that domestic sheep are the direct cause of pneumonia outbreaks in wild populations it would be reckless to let them come into contact with one another. It seems we would be able to find a more responsible area for the sheep herder to let his flock feed.

I would love to hear what others know about the subject.

Clint

[Yelper Guy]

DH14, I've read what you've described about wild sheep mingling with domestic sheep.
Domestic sheep spread diseases to the wild counterpart.
I think that goes with a lot of animals, not just sheep.

[Karl Blanchard]

Tagging

[Jonathan_S]

Also tagging.  Drove that hill recently and wondered the same.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Pasteurella haemolytica is the primary bacteria of concern.  It requires close or nose to nose contact to spread, most typical situation is a young ram wandering looking for love, getting infected and then returning to the bighorn herd and spreading the infection.  Once the herd is infected there are typically one of two bad outcomes: an acute outbreak where all sex and age classes die directly as a result of infection, or a subacute outbreak where there is a low or nil rate of adult mortality, but infected lambs develop an active infection leading to high or total winter mortality. 

California bighorns along the east Cascades in Washington are very unlikely to swim the Columbia, though I know of at least one one-way trip by a ewe from the Quilomene to Grant County.  They are relatively safe from domestic sheep on the other side. 

There are no laws in Washington requiring segregation of domestic sheep from bighorns (or domestic goats which can also transmit the disease.  Many public land grazing allotments have been altered to separate (or increase separation distance) from bighorns. 

The North Chelan herd was established following a voluntary buyout of the domestic sheep grazing allotments from the permittee and the USFS subsequently converted those to cattle allotments.  WDFW, USFS and the current domestic sheep grazing allottee in the Wenatchee River Ranger District entered into an agreement to increase the distance between the Swakane herd and the domestic allotments, as well as a mutual notification protocol where the grazer notifies WDFW of any bighorns that mingle with their domestics, and the grazer is notified of any stray domestics that are in the Swakane herd area, with the option to capture and remove them or allow lethal removal.  Subsequent to that agreement and management strategy, the SWakane herd, which had languished between 30-40 animals 1960s-1990s, increased by over 100 animals and has maintained that higher level for over a decade (correlation is not causation but the Swakane herd has improved substantially). 

Voluntary buyouts leading to retirement of domestic sheep allotments in bighorn sheep areas have been done extensively throughout bighorn country, usually facilitated by a third party NGO like the Wild Sheep Foundation, and often in conjunction with transplants to augment or re-establish bighorn herds.  Success has been mixed, but over-all has resulted in a substantial increase in bighorns range-wide over the past 30-50 years.

[Duckhunter14]

@DOUBLELUNG thank you for the very informative information. I appreciate your input and that's what I was hoping for when posting this subject. I'm glad to see others have the same concern for our wild sheep.

Just for clarification, the domestic sheep in question were on the west side of the Columbia river, north side of I-90 coming down the hill above Vantage. I know the sheep usually stay relatively close to the river, but often they do roam. My neighbor in Sun East where I have a cabin (just north of Ellensburg) photographed a young ram last year right above our cabin. I can only assume the ram came from the Quilomene and that's a long ways from the river! I realize that situation is an anomaly, but the domestic sheep I saw were well within the wild sheep I have seen and photographed in that units range.

I'm glad to hear so much collaboration has been done between the state and private parties with sheep grazing allotments. That's great that the WSF has stepped up too. Id be interested to hear about the area in mention. If there has been an attempt to buyout the allotment or if there are parameters that have been agreed upon by the State and the holder of the allotment?

I have a call in to the area Biologist. I have spoken to him once about a bull elk I witnessed with elongated hooves in a east-side unit and he was very friendly and helpful. Although I am not holding my breath; I have tried to call him about other issues and had multiple calls and voicemails in and never heard back. I understand they are very busy people and getting ahold of them can be tough.

If I speak to him, I will report back what his response is.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Young rams are the usual suspects, they will wander many miles looking for mates.  Most states have policies to remove those wanderers if they are seen with domestic sheep or goats.  I don't know enough to speak to the situation at the south end of the Quilomene. 

[jackelope]

Doublelung would be among the most knowledgeable people on this topic. Also @ramslam will have a bunch of info as well I bet.

[Duckhunter14]

I just got off the phone with the area biologist. Super nice guy and answered all of my questions. I am paraphrasing the conversation and trying to be as detailed about it as possible.

So the area in question; is private land. The state is very worried about the grazing of domestic sheep in the area and actually has reached out to the individual who owns the land and apparently he has no interest in working with the state. I guess private parties have also approached the individual and asked him if he would be willing to change that specific lease to cattle, or pay him out to keep sheep off of it. Apparently he has always adamantly said no, but this year may be open to the discussion, so the group (which he did not tell me who) is going to approach him with another offer this year. The issue is apparently where the sheep are now is part of a chain in which they move the sheep from one location to the next. So breaking that chain could create a logistics issue. You cant just trailer a flock of sheep that large.

The bio also stated that the individual has also said that if the Forest Service tries to change any of the allotments legally (aka making it illegal due to proximity to bighorn populations, etc) that he would sue immediately. So from a States perspective their hands are tied. Its his property and he can allow sheep to graze all he wants.

The biologist seemed hopeful that the private party would agree to the buyout and workout the logistics of moving the domestic sheep along a different route. But only time will tell. He was definitely worried about situation right now and when I asked if someone could talk to the individual he kind of laughed and made it seem like every avenue had been explored to reason with him and it was not possible.

Obviously there are two sides to every story, I'd be interested to hear the private land owners opinion and how the conversation was approached. I'm really hoping the third party can come to an agreement with him. It would be a shame to lose that population of wild sheep to disease.

[ramslam]

Great info shared by DoubleLung and from your report from the local bio. 

I'll add a bit more information just to muddy the water and in case you are interested in how the disease works.  I've had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Tom Besser from WSU  (WSF Endowed Chair to Bighorn Research) many times over the years and most recently met with him twice over the last 4-5 months with some of my students as they were working on this very same issue.   The most recent science indicates that Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M ovi for short) is what initiates the disease outbreak.  M ovi kills the cilia in the throat and makes the bighorns  susceptible to other diseases such as what DoubleLung mentioned.  M ovi is a caprinae disease (found in sheep and goats) although other M ovi's exist in other species.   M ovi has very little impact on domestic sheep although preliminary studies show that M ovi domestic lambs grow faster.  M ovi is analogous to when the west was settled and Small Pox carried by settlers wiped out Native Americans.  The settlers had developed some immunity over time but the Native Americans were naive to the disease.  A few other random thoughts, M ovi does not persist in the environment (ie it doesn't survive in the ground, water, etc)  A recent study by Dr. Besser involved him taking buckets of water from the U of I domestic sheep troughs in Moscow, driving 15 minutes to the bighorn pens in Pullman and dumping the water in for the bighorns.  No disease transfer occurred.  Also, not all domestic sheep and goats are M ovi positive.  WDFW is raising domestic sheep at the state pen in Walla Walla to see if they can prove to the domestic industry that it is possible to raise M ovi free domestic sheep.  Probably not a solution for producers with more than 20 domestics but it could help in some cases (in Asotin Co there are maybe one or two producers that have more than 20 head).  Here is a recent article on the state pen study...   http://www.khq.com/story/37990253/domestic-sheep-study-at-the-state-penitentiary    Hopefully this catches on, I could see a restaurant in Seattle marketing "Wild Sheep Safe" lamb?!?!

All-aged die-offs of various severity occur as DoubleLung mentioned but the real problem is that M ovi persists well after the initial die-off and thus reinfects lambs year after year.   WDFW with funding from WA WSF recently completed a study in the Asotin herd which experienced its first M ovi outbreak about 5 years ago.  With such a small herd, the bios were able to capture what they believed was every ewe in the herd a few times over a couple years.  There were a few that tested positive and they were removed.  Since then, lamb survival has been back to normal and the herd is growing again.  This management plan is being applied to other nearby herds as well such as Wenaha, Mtn View and Black Butte.  Key is...gotta be somewhat small in herd numbers as it is not practical if there are 100+ bighorn ewes scattered out after a die-off. 

As far as I know we have one family that raises domestic sheep on public lands.  Congress initiated research a few years back for the USFS to conduct "Risk of Contact" studies.  This type of analysis has been tried in court and the method/science has won.  Unfortunately, according to the analysis completed on the OWNF in NC Washington nearly all of the public land grazing allotments put our bighorns at "high risk".  A public meeting was held in the summer of 2016 and the OWNF was set to re-evaluate their grazing allotments.  Here we are nearly two years later and they haven't done squat.  WA WSF is working with WSF to go to the congressional level and demand that the USFS follow its own rules.  This is a painfully slow process.  AND WE NEED YOUR HELP!  As I posted on a different thread a week or two ago, on the 2018 Farm Bill, Amendment 106 was added that said in short:

“…make vacant grazing allotments available to a holder of a grazing permit or lease…if the lands covered by the permit or lease are unusable because of a natural disaster, court-issued injunction, or conflict with wildlife…”

The proposed amendment also restricts court-issued injunctions “enjoining the use of any allotment for which a permit or lease has been issued…unless the Secretary…can make a vacant grazing allotment available to the holder of such permit…”

Further, Amendment 106 considers these actions “categorically excluded” from environmental assessments or environmental impact statement under NEPA.

This amendment will prevent the requirement to complete a new National Environmental Policy (NEPA) domestic grazing allotment with the recent completion of the Risk of Contact for many of our California Bighorn herds in north central Washington.

Despite our efforts, this amendment received ZERO opposition in committee and was added to the Farm Bill.  Fortunately, due to the immigration mess the Farm Bill failed on its first vote. 

This is where we need your help!  Contact your local Reps!  Amendment 106 was co-sponsored by Rep.  Newhouse from Sunnyside. Obviously he is catering to ONE family that benefits directly from public land domestic sheep grazing.  If you live in his district, you MUST call or send him an email.  If you live in other districts in Washington, send an email to your Rep and suggest that Amendment 106 be struck from the Farm Bill 2018. It is NOT good for Wild Sheep!

This takes five minutes to do:

If you live in Okanogan, Douglas, Grant, Adams, Yakima, Benton, or Franklin counties, please go to:

https://newhouse.house.gov/contact

Type in your zip code and strongly encourage him to withdraw Amendment 106. The amendment is bad for bighorn sheep, hunters, sportsmen & women and looks to protect only one family that benefits from public land domestic sheep grazing in Washington. You can also call his Washington, DC office at 202-225-5816.

If you are outside those listed counties, feel free to go to
 
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Send a note that hunters and sportsmen & women do not support "Farm Bill 2018 Amendment 106."

Feel free to email this to any bighorn advocates, wildlife groups, etc. We need quick action and lots of it!



Sorry I've carried on too long!  Let me know if you have other questions.

Glen

[Duckhunter14]

Glen (@RAMSLAM) please don't apologize. That is exactly what I was looking for and I appreciate all of the great information that you shared. I hope everyone who reads this thread contacts their rep and expresses an opinion about Amendment #106.

I hope you continue to use the forum as a platform to help educate and inform everyone about what we can do to help wild sheep in the future. Although many of us may never draw a tag for a wild sheep many of us still love to see them, photograph them, and just know they exist in healthy populations across north America and dream about the opportunity to hunt them one day.

Clint

[DOUBLELUNG]

Awesome info Glen thank you

[Whitenuckles]

Good read. Thanks for the info. I learned quite a bit from it.