Bad news for Yakima Canyon sheep

[pat2bear]

A little better explination on the disease. Looks like they're just waiting to see what happens.

What's the source of pneumonia in bighorns?
By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
Yakima Herald-Republic

YAKIMA, Wash. -- For years, die-offs among bighorn sheep have been attributed to pasteurella, a bacterial parasite typically found in the lungs of those pneumonic bighorns.

Now, though, experts are beginning to believe the real culprit may be mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, another bacterium that inhibits the sheep's ability to prevent the otherwise dormant pasteurella bacteria from leading to pneumonia.

That's holding true with the current pneumonia outbreak among Yakima River Canyon bighorns, where each of the infected animals already tested has the mycoplasma.

Bighorns can carry the same toxin as the pasteurella carried by domestic sheep, "and yet a lot of times those (bighorn) herds can live for years without any signs of pneumonia," said Tom Besser, one of the team of Washington State University biologists who first isolated the mycoplasma.

Besser, a professor of veterinary microbiology, said while the mycoplasma itself isn't the likely killer, its introduction predisposes the bighorns to fatal pneumonia.

"Without the mycoplasma," he said, "it seems the sheep can carry these pasteurella bacteria without having epidemics of pneumonia."

Pneumonia outbreaks in Idaho and Montana have killed as many as 70 percent of the bighorns in the infected herd. But even the survivors might carry pathogens that could infect other healthy bighorns.

"In all honesty, I don't know what to do," said Jeff Bernatowicz, a Yakima-based state wildlife biologist who has been monitoring the Yakima River Canyon herd. "We could have them all drop dead, or we might not. We don't know how they're going to react.

"And does this spread to other herds? That's kind of the scary part. That's why folks are talking about doing something drastic, like euthanizing the entire herd that's sick (in order) to contain it."

[luvtohnt]

I personally think if they are beng closely monitered then let them be. Only cull the ones that try to relocate to another herd, and see if they can build a natural immunity to this disease. If they can't then cull the herd before they calve so ther is no trasmitting the disease. I don't think the public should be involved with the culling, especially after the skagit county fiasco. Let the proffesionals who know what the symtoms are and look like do the dirty deed. 

Brandon

[starbailey]

The problem of letting nature take its course and let the few sheep that survive build immunity is that it doesn't happen. To my knowledge there hasn't been any documented cases where a bighorn has become "immune" to the outbreak. The infected sheep might not die from carring the virus, but they can still pass it to other sheep that will die.
 To kill just the sheep that travel out of the area to non infected herds would be very difficult to pull off. Think about trying to shoot sheep crossing the hwy in the middle of the night. Plus non infected sheep will try to travel into the infected area so they would have to be shot also. Killing healthy sheep.
If the herds were left to intermingle and nature did the killing that would put us on a 10-15 year reintroduction schedule.(If we could get some from ID,OR,NV,or UT). It seems that is how long it takes for the lamb mortality to come back. Some of the Rocky herds in the Blues still have lamb survival issues stemming from the outbreaks of the 80's-90's! If the game dept is able to effectively kill all the sheep in the Umtanum, then realistically we could be transplanting bighorns back within a year or two. That is if Clemens isn't infected yet as there are some domestic sheep and goats very close to the known bighorn areas. Plus, the Tieton sheep aren't so safe either as there is a group of domestic goats that are being left to  free-range(illegally) across the river on hwy 12. How long before those domestics infect either or both bighorn herds? That would effectively end all instate bighorns available for transplant.
I don't know if the game dept can get the "total kill order" passed but I know that is the best solution to this no win situation. IN MY OPPINION!
Bryan

 

[boneaddict]

I haven't seen a sheep in my last three trips through the canyon looking for them.   Badluck, or something is amiss in a very bad way.....either nature has already taken its course, or the dept has started its efforts.

[andrew_12gauge]

I haven't seen a sheep in my last three trips through the canyon looking for them.   Badluck, or something is amiss in a very bad way.....either nature has already taken its course, or the dept has started its efforts.

i dont like the sound of that, please keep us posted

[180-GRAIN]

Thats a crying shame, and bad news for us washington state bighorn sheep hunting hopefulls

[Elkstuffer]

I spent 3 hours in the canyon today looking for sheep. I finally found a band of 10 rams. Normally I will see 75 to 100 sheep this time of year without any effort. I did see a lot of raven and golden eagle activity up on the ridge tops. I was pretty disappointed to say the least.

[WDFW-SUX]

 

[coachcw]

That sucks Rick , sounds like natures running its course, hope its contained

[robb92]

Very sorry to hear, they might as well sell permits to hunters to do the eradication, that would at least create some revenue.

I agree with that. Don't think it would feel like a real hunt but at least the animal is not suffereing anymore.