Post by: boneaddict on June 17, 2009, 06:48:11 AM
Contact: Mike Demick
(208) 799-5010
sick bighorn shot
An Idaho Fish and Game biologist Wednesday morning, June 10, shot a bighorn sheep along the Salmon River about 20 miles east of Riggins.
The seven-year-old radio-collared bighorn ram appeared ill and had been observed near a private domestic sheep ranch along the Salmon River. Officials feared it suffered from pneumonia, which is often fatal to wild sheep. It was killed after eluding authorities since May 18.
The sick ram had rejoined other bighorns a few miles upriver, but the ram was alone when it was shot.
Fish and Game biologists took blood and tissue samples from the dead bighorn. The samples will be processed at the Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center and the Fish and Game Wildlife Health Center in Caldwell. Results are expected in about two weeks.
The ram had been radio-collared in 2008, and blood and tissue samples taken then can be compared to the samples taken Wednesday.
Other sheep in the herd carry radio collars and will be monitored closely.
Post by: SHANE(WA) on June 17, 2009, 07:16:04 AM
Post by: boneaddict on June 17, 2009, 08:07:51 AM
Post by: bucklucky on June 17, 2009, 08:11:46 AM
Post by: jackelope on June 17, 2009, 08:21:35 AM
Quote
Quote from: DOUBLELUNG on January 15, 2009, 07:39:26 PM
The epizootic pneumonia outbreaks in bighorn sheep are caused by Pasteurella haemolytica, which evolved with Old World sheep, and which is endemic in them (both wild and domestic species) and causes no major disease issues for them. New World sheep lack exposure and immunity to P. haemolytica, and once exposed can remain dormant in individuals until they are stressed; then the disease breaks out, is highly infectious, and will kill 50-90+% of a bighorn herd. So far, no bighorns have developed immunity, though after 140 years of exposure some are more resistant than others (that just means the outbreaks and die-offs are less frequent). Outbreaks kill all sex and age classes.
A second cause is lungworm, also an Old World sheep disease, which also causes pneumonia. In herds with lungworm, lambs will be born and adults aren't usually affected - but all or most lambs will die before winter. Herds eventually blink out as the adults die and aren't replaced.
So far, the only effective measure is spatial separation. Even then, when subadult rams wander and disperse, they often come into contact domestic sheep or goats, and then present the danger they will bringthe infection to a bighorn herd. Thus, most of not all wild sheep states' wildlife agencies have policies that bighorns that contact domestic sheep should be killed ASAP (or, in the case of WA, killed if they cannot be captured and quarantined).
There's no state law against having domestic sheep in an occupied bighorn range, unfortunately. Forest Service and BLM both have policies that are supposed to prevent commingling, but then politics creep into the mix.
*censored*ty deal...
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,18217.0.html
Post by: BLKBEARKLR on June 17, 2009, 08:22:36 AM
Post by: Slider on June 17, 2009, 08:39:08 AM
Post by: jager on June 17, 2009, 08:49:24 AM
MOSCOW, Idaho — The University of Idaho has opened an investigation into whether one its researchers suppressed information that appears to link bighorn sheep getting deadly diseases directly from domestic sheep on open range.
Marie Bulgin is head of the university’s Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center and a past president of the Idaho Wool Growers Association.
She has testified before Idaho lawmakers and in federal court that there is no evidence bighorn sheep can get deadly diseases directly from domestic sheep on open range.
She says she didn’t know about a 1994 study conducted by scientists at the research center on two dead bighorns that shows a link but never resulted in a paper being published.
Bulgin supported a 2009 bill backed by the wool growers to keep sheep ranchers from losing federal grazing lands that are used by bighorns.
I had heard about the conflict of interest some time ago...guess it's ramping up now.
Post by: chukarchaser on June 20, 2009, 08:26:06 AM