PNEUMONIA, OVINE - USA (11): (WASHINGTON) BIGHORN SHEEP
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A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Sat 18 Sep 2010
Source: The Seattle Times, Yakima Herald-Republic report [edited]
Deadly illness spreading among bighorn sheep
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State wildlife biologists made the gut-wrenching decision last spring
[2010] to kill dozens of sick bighorns west of the Yakima River
Canyon in hopes of keeping a pneumonia outbreak from reaching the
herd across the river.
It didn't work. Roughly two-thirds of the lambs born this spring
[2010] east of the canyon are believed to have died. And although
biologists haven't verified deaths among the adults, hunters on a
special-permit hunt on that side of the river last week reported
seeing adult rams coughing.
Tissue samples from the rams killed by those hunters will be
disease-tested at Washington State University, but the findings are
expected to take weeks. Until then, state Department of Fish and
Wildlife biologists only know what they see. And it doesn't look good.
"Something bad is going on," said Jeff Bernatowicz, a Yakima-based
sate wildlife biologist. "If the lambs are dying, hey, the signs are
there -- the warning signs are flashing in front of us. Almost
without a doubt the bacterium has jumped the river and is now on the
east side."
The initial breakout on the west side of the canyon began in December
[2009], when at least 10 bighorns died from pneumonia, most of them
north of Umtanum Creek.
State wildlife managers decided to remove the remaining wild sheep
showing signs of the illness to keep the outbreak from infecting
nearby herds, potentially resulting in a mass die-off similar to
those in nearby states.
State biologists and others from the US Department of Agriculture
Wildlife Services removed 69 bighorns on the west side of the canyon,
most of them showing obvious signs of illness.
But the biologists also removed several seemingly healthy adults, and
those animals also were found to be infected with _Pasteurella_, a
bacterial parasite typically found in the lungs of pneumonic bighorns.
"What we found was west of the river, every single animal looked like
it had been exposed," Bernatowicz said. "There wasn't a single one
that hadn't been.
"The culling was designed to remove the sick animals and keep the
healthy ones, and the hope was by doing that the lambs would survive.
The theory was if you removed the animals that were actually shedding
the bacteria, the lambs would have a better chance."
But even that didn't work. In the herd west of the canyon --
estimated at about 200 bighorns before last winter's [2009-10]
outbreak -- all but 4 of this year's [2010] lambs have already died.
"And there's no guarantee they'll survive," Bernatowicz said.
The same thing may ultimately happen with the herd east of the
canyon, which has been holding at about 100 sheep. This year's aerial
surveys of the bighorns in the Selah Butte area east of the river
have seen a steady lamb decline.
A 22 May 2010 survey found 32 lambs along with 71 ewes. That meant
roughly 45 of the herd's lambs had ewes, "just about exactly normal,"
according to Bernatowicz.
On 7 Jul 2010, the aerial spotters found 47 ewes -- the others were
believed to be hiding at the 1st sound of the approaching helicopter
-- and 20 lambs, which still represented a healthy lamb-to-ewe ratio.
But on 2 Sep 2010, the 58 ewes spotted had only 9 lambs with them.
State biologists aren't likely to know for weeks how deadly an impact
the disease will have to those adults, or whether any of the lambs
will survive.
Still, even with the disease still spreading, there is still room for
optimism, Bernatowicz said.
"The good thing is we still have 200 animals out there, west and east
(of the river). That's quite a few animals to be working with,"
Bernatowicz said. "It isn't like it's been knocked down to 20 or 30.
So if this thing gets turned around and they start producing lambs
again that survive, we could still be in pretty good shape."
[Byline: Scott Sandsberry]
--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
[While no one wishes to see the sheep suffer, it seems there should
be a better way of controlling the disease than herd culling, which
may not be working either.
An important update regarding the causative agents in these outbreaks
in bighorn sheep is in ProMED-mail post 20100815.2814. Readers are
encouraged to read this post. - Mod.TG]
[ProMED-mail would like to thank Peter Cyrog, DVM for submitting a
similar newswire on this current outbreak. - Mod.MPP]
[The state of Washington can be located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail
interactive map at
A Yakima River map can be seen at
[see also:
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (10): (MT) bighorn sheep 20100827.3047
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (09): (MT) bighorn sheep 20100815.2814
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (08): (MT) bighorn sheep 20100814.2794
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (07): (NV) 20100228.0668
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (06): (WA) 20100210.0459
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (05): (MT) bighorn sheep 20100205.0391
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (04): (MT), bighorn sheep 20100124.0272
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (03): (MT), bighorn sheep 20100124.0262
Pneumonia, ovine - USA (02): (MT), bighorn sheep 20100117.0197
2009
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Pneumonia, ovine - USA: (NV) bighorn sheep 20100109.0105
2008
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Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn sheep - USA: (MT) 20080119.0248
2004
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Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn sheep - USA (ID)(02) 20040415.1040
Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn sheep - USA (ID) 20040414.1010
1996
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Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn Sheep - USA (5) 19960130.0221
Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn Sheep - USA (4) 19960129.0209
Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn Sheep - USA (3) 19960126.0187
Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn Sheep - USA (2) 19960126.0186
Pasteurella pneumonia, Big Horn Sheep 19960124.0168]
...................................sb/tg/mj/mpp
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