Wild and Domestic Sheep Disease Workshops Main Page

February 2008 Wild and Domestic Sheep Disease Risk and Management Workshop - This third in a series of workshops took place in Salt Lake City, Utah in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep. Updated February 7th, 2008 with Abstracts and PowerPoint presentations from the workshop.

September 2007 Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Disease Risk Assessment Workshop PowerPoint Presentations

September 2007 Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Disease Risk Assessment Workshop Abstracts (pdf)

September 2007 Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Disease Risk Assessment Workshop Meeting Notes (coming soon) 

Related Links:

• EPIDEMIC PASTEURELLOSIS IN A BIGHORN SHEEP POPULATION COINCIDING WITH THE APPEARANCE OF A DOMESTIC SHEEP (PDF) new!

• Payette National Forest Qualitative Risk Assessment - In November of 2006 a panel of experts was brought together in Boise, ID by the US Forest Service to review a qualitative risk assessment done for grazing in and around Hells Canyon. Qualitative risk assessment is a commonly used tool to attempt to determine where risks exist and how they can be mitigated.  Although this risk assessment was controversial because representatives of the grazing and the veterinary/animal health communities were not part of the expert team, the panel of experts did not find significant fault with the methods or conclusions.
• Progress on Cooperative Efforts to Manage Bighorn and Domestic Sheep/Goat Diseases
  Subsequent to the series of workshops that began in November 2006 agreements between wildlife and livestock groups in several States have been brokered.  These documents acknowledge that there are disease transmission risks, that separation may be a useful tool, and that there is a general desire to work together and use good science as a guide. These agreements vary in content and complexity, but they appear to open the way to problem solving, progress and cooperation and are evidence that efforts to disseminate information may be working to bring about positive change.". 
  Nevada
  --MOU Press Release
  --Memorandum of Agreement (full document)
  Wyoming
  (coming shortly)
  Idaho
  (coming shortly)


• "Payette Debate" -- Letters from Dr. Jessup and Dr. Bulgin
  
  

• Payette Principles - These principles arose out of the November 2006 US Forest Service meeting in Boise, ID and were unanimously endorsed by a panel of experts that included both domestic livestock interests and wildlife interests. They may serve as common ground for future discussions and were reviewed and engendered little dissent at the April, 2007 Davis, CA workshop, although a formal to determine if there was consensus was not held.

• Payette Literature References
  
  
• Sierra Nevada Quantitative risk assessment; Quantitative risk assessment is a relatively new tool for assessing disease risk stemming from contact between bighorn and domestic sheep.  It has the advantage of allowing one to vary contact related parameters and determine how changes in grazing and management activities may alter risk.  They are more complicated and require more precise data than qualitative risk assessment and the one provided is specific to the Sierra Nevada Mountain populations of California.
  

• Contact Between Bighorn and Domestic Sheep: Interactive Map of Locations and Photographs - Some controversy exists as to whether bighorn sheep and domestic sheep or goats will seek each other out and/or come into close contact. If you have pictures of close contact (where both species are in the same frame) please post is along with the date and location. (e-mail mreed [at] ospr.dfg.ca.gov with additional photos, and please provide location information)
• Contact Between Bighorn and Domestic Sheep Idaho : Idaho Department of Fish and Game press release: Bighorn sheep euthanized after contacting domestic goats.

• WAFWA Wild Sheep Management Guildlines - In July of 2007 the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) adopted a set of guidelines for management of bighorn/domestic sheep disease conflicts. WAFWA represents the directors and State wildlife conservation agencies of 11 western states and their federal agency counterparts. These guidelines represent a set of collaboratively developed “best management practices” for wildlife and land managers, range land users and grazers and conservation organizations. Comments on this document will be considered when at the February 2008 workshop (see link below).

• Foundational and Historic Literature- A list of 200 references pertinent to pneumonia in wild and domestic animals, pneumoina and other diseases of bighorn sheep, domestic sheep and goats courtesy of Dr. Mark Drew.


• Documentation of Wild Sheep Dieoffs Following Contact with Domestics There has been a good deal of controversy over whether sufficient documentation and/or scientific literature exists to show that bighorn sheep dieoffs often following domestic sheep and goat contact (see “Payette Debate” above.  Following are pdf’s of some of the older pertinent papers/articles.

• The Veterinary Controversy
  
  • Letters to the editor of  JAVMA (June 15^th, 2007)
  • Wildlife Veterinarians Continue to Challenge AVMA (July, 2007)
  • AVMA's Executive Director Dr. Ron DeHaven Responds (August, 2007) 
  • Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Respond to AVMA (September, 2007)
  • Related JAVMA news January 1 and February 1, 2008


• NEW MYCOPLASMA RESEARCH PAPERS:  Pdf’s of the following papers have recently become available and are provided for your interest. The role of Mycoplasma ovipneumonia as one of the perhaps unappreciated causes of pneumonia in wild/domestic sheep is currently a hot area of research and interest:
  
  • Association of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae infection with population limiting respiratory disease in free-ranging Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis)
  • Experimental Studies Of Chronic Pneumonia Of Sheep
  • Enzootic pneumonia-pleurisy complex in sheep and lambs
  • Chronic non-progressive pneumonia of sheep in New Zealand - a review of the role of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae

Past Workshops:

• Wild Sheep Respiratory Disease Workshop - On April 25 and 26, 2007 a selected group of veterinary scientists, national and international experts on respiratory diseases of livestock and wildlife were brought together in Davis, CA to review basic concepts, new findings, mechanisms of disease and to work on as yet unsolved questions and problems. The entire meeting was professionally facilitated and recorded and can be found here.
• Bighorn/Domestic Sheep Disease Risk Assessment Workshop (September 2007)