Pnemonia outbreak in the East Humbolts and Lamoille Bighorns

[elkguide]

Posted this in the Nevada thread also.

Just thought that I would share this with everyone on MM that likes to come and check out the sheep here in Northern Nevada, not looking so good to have an outbreak during the winter time when all the sheep are herded up for the winter time with limited food sources due to snow. Hope everyone gives these sheep the space and rest they need to reduce the stress on them and in turn hope it lowers the amount of disease spread throughout the herds.


Date: 1/07/10
Contact: Joe Doucette
Phone: (775) 777-2305

DISEASE REPORTED IN BIGHORN SHEEP NEAR WELLS

On December 29, 2009 the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) was contacted by concerned sportsmen about a potential disease event affecting Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the East Humboldt Range south of Wells. Department of Wildlife biologist Caleb McAdoo responded to the call and confirmed that several sheep showed clinical signs of pneumonia.

Understanding the potential severity of the incident, NDOW biologists and veterinarians from NDOW and the Nevada Department of Agriculture collected samples for disease analysis over the New Year?s weekend.

?Samples have been taken from seven animals and sent to Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory for analysis,? said Peregrine Wolff, NDOW veterinarian.

Four ewes were outfitted with ear tags and radio telemetry collars, which will allow the biologists to monitor the sheep movements and conduct health assessments on the animals, as needed. Biologists will continue to monitor the sheep, and lab results should be completed within two weeks.

McAdoo asked that the public avoid the sheep wintering locations, such as the Beverly Hills and Welcome areas outside of Wells, Nevada, in order to avoid any further undue stress on the animals.

Bighorn sheep in Lamoille Canyon, 20 miles outside of Elko, are also affected. NDOW is asking the public to also give the sheep in Lamoille Canyon a wide berth to limit the stress on them during the crucial winter months.

?NDOW would also like to thank the dedicated sportsmen who provided valuable information regarding this disease event,? said McAdoo, ?This information allowed us to get on the ground immediately to assess the situation.?

?We are actively monitoring the situation, and working to identify options to manage this disease event,? said Wolff.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) protects, restores and manages fish and wildlife, and promotes fishing, hunting, and boating safety. NDOW?s wildlife and habitat conservation efforts are primarily funded by sportsmen?s license and conservation fees and a federal surcharge on hunting and fishing gear. Support wildlife and habitat conservation in Nevada by purchasing a hunting, fishing, or combination license. For more information, visit www.ndow.org.

 

[littlebighorn]

That is a sad story for sure on really nice herd of sheep.
Unless people understand how vulnerable sheep are to all sorts of disease and stress they would never know how little it takes to put sheep over the edge.
My son and I were watching a small local herd of bighorns and some joker who was sledding nearby decided to see how close he could get to them. His actions eventually spooked the whole herd away from their food source and just put undue stress on them at a time when they don't need that.
Hopefully your post will help us all to be more careful around wildlife at this time of year.

 

[JB148]

Sad deal for sure. Please keep us posted. I live in Oregon and it has been painful to see what it has done to the Snake River herd over the year comingaling with domestic sheep.JB

 

[NVBighorn]

Really a shame. Hate to see that happen.

 

[COSA]

Hopefully something can be done to minimize the damage. I really got a lot of enjoyment seeing them while scouting/hunting deer a year ago. Some of the ewes and young rams were very photogenic.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c90/jmuething/040.jpg

[IMG]http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c90/jmuething/EastHumbolts006.jpg

 

[piper]

This is the second time for the lamoille herd, sad situation, but they are too close to domestic sheep, it was bound to happen. I remmember a cover of the Elko daily free press that once had a picture of a wild sheep mixed in with a whole herd of domestics. To them it was just a cute picture about a poor little lost sheep.

 

[elkguide]

Here is an update on the East Humbolt and Runby Mountain bighorn pneumonia disease outbreak. Sounds like this application season might not have any bighorn tags for units 101 and 102 possibly. The East Humbolt herd has it worse than the Ruby herd, thats too bad they were harvesting some hammers that were young rams in that unit too. I think the state record is 190 or 191 and was only 7 or 8 years old! Hope they can get this under control.

Date: 02/25/10
Contact: Joe Doucette
Phone: (775) 777-2305

BIGHORN SHEEP CONTINUE TO SUCCUMB TO PNEUMONIA

Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) biologists continue to find bighorn sheep that have died due to complications brought on by pneumonia in the East Humboldt Range and in the Ruby Mountains.

?We have found 61 dead bighorn sheep in the East Humboldt's and 18 in the Ruby Mountains for a total of 79 sheep over the last three months,? said Caleb McAdoo, NDOW big game biologist. ?In other words, we have observed mortalities of 31% of the herd in the East Humboldt's and 11% of the herd in the Ruby Mountains.?

McAdoo cautions the public that the full extent of the effects of the disease event won't be known until later in the spring when aerial surveys of sheep populations are performed. Biologists anticipate that the magnitude of the die-off may be much greater than presently known.

According to McAdoo this isn't uncommon as other states around the west, including Washington, Montana, and Utah, have also experienced die-offs in their wild sheep populations due to the effects of pneumonia. During the winter of 1995-1996, the Ruby Mountain sheep herd lost approximately 80% of its population due to pneumonia, though this is the first major disease event in the East Humboldt's since bighorns were reintroduced there 18 years ago. Recently, 95% of the Hays Canyon herd in northwestern Nevada was likely lost to a pneumonia outbreak.

?Unfortunately, there is no known cure, treatment or protocol for pneumonia in bighorn sheep,? said McAdoo, ?but we are going to use the data collected from this disease event which may help in future outbreaks.?

NDOW biologists and veterinarians have been performing a number of tasks, setting the stage for future study. This includes tagging and putting radio telemetry collars on sheep in both herds, taking biological samples from both live and dead sheep, and administering Draxxin, a broad spectrum antibiotic to more than 60 sheep. Soil and forage samples are also being taken to explore what effect forage quality and trace minerals in the forage may have on both diseased and healthy animals.

Over the next few years NDOW biologists will follow the collared and tagged animals observing overall health, lamb recruitment and herd growth in an effort to understand the long term affects a major disease event has. Biological samples taken from deceased animals will be compared to those taken from healthy animals to see if minerals, forage quality or even genetics may play a role in determining which animals may live and which may die.

To avoid putting more stress on the animals than necessary, work is being done from the ground as much as possible, as helicopters cause the animals to try to evade and escape, using precious energy and making them more susceptible to pneumonia.

The full extent of the die-off will not be known until later in the spring after the sheep have had time to recover from the winter and can be surveyed from the air.

So far only one Rocky Mountain goat has been found that has died from pneumonia. It is too early to tell if a large percentage of the goat population has also been affected by pneumonia. One good sign is that a fair number of kids have been seen on surveys. Kids are often one of the first segments of the population that are affected by major disease events.

McAdoo also wanted to recognize the sportsman?s groups that have assisted in funding the operations. ?The cost for all the tagging, collaring and sampling work is very expensive,? McAdoo explains. ?Elko Bighorns Unlimited (EBU) and Nevada Bighorns Unlimited (NBU) stepped up to the plate and are helping us out in these hard economic times and we thank them for that. NBU is donating $25,000 and EBU has provided $27,000 with the offer of more if needed.?

The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) protects, restores and manages fish and wildlife, and promotes fishing, hunting, and boating safety. NDOW?s wildlife and habitat conservation efforts are primarily funded by sportsmen?s license and conservation fees and a federal surcharge on hunting and fishing gear. Support wildlife and habitat conservation in Nevada by purchasing a hunting, fishing, or combination license. For more information, visit www.ndow.org.

 

[wymoosehunter]

Until you remove range maggots from the vicinity of wild sheep, this will happen every time. End BLM/Forest Service leases for domestic sheep in wild sheep areas.
WyMo

 

[treedagain]

bad deal all around