Disease so far seems limited in area-
Jackson bighorn sheep herd showing signs of pneumonia. Pinedale Online. From Wyoming Game and Fish
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
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Wasn’t this the same herd they were chasing with helicopters last year and putting radio-collars on them? We have too much activity catching and handling sheep by researchers and game managers who pay little attention to basic common disease prevention protocols. I attend meetings on bighorn transplants and research and have watched numerous slide shows and PowerPoint presentations. I have yet to see a surgical mask or gloves used by these people who routinely handle bighorns. They use the same capture nets and vehicles on different bighorn herds and may be carrying disease with them. Wildlife departments need to teach a little basic sanitation 101 instead of so much telemetry 202 in their programs. I wonder if these folks washed their hands after killing and handling the sick lambs.
How about some research to see if there is a correlation between overmanagement (Handling to poke,prod,collar and move) and disease outbreaks in Bighorns. The bighorns in the Whiskey Basin near Dubois, WY were doing extremely well years ago until several state game agencies started using them as transplant stock.
Researchers give bighorns pneumonia now? What about domestic sheep? Wow…
Larry these are not the same sheep that were captured last year. Good jab though.