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Bighorn sheep in Washington tests positive for disease

Published 9:34 am Wednesday, October 21, 2020

** ADVANCE SUNDAY EDITIONS DEC. 5 ** In this photo released by the Bureau of Land Management, bighorn sheep graze in a meadow on Little Vulcan Mountain, near Curlew, Wash., Nov. 23, 2004. Contract loggers for the BLM have thinned stands of Douglas fir, killed weeds and planted shrubs the wild sheep savor, all to protect the Little Vulcan Mountain herd from extinction. The idea is to open up thickets surrounding the meadow where the herd forages and bears its young, allowing them to see and escape from predators. (AP Photo/Bureau of Land Management, Glenn Paulson)
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** ADVANCE SUNDAY EDITIONS DEC. 5 ** In this photo released by the Bureau of Land Management, bighorn sheep graze in a meadow on Little Vulcan Mountain, near Curlew, Wash., Nov. 23, 2004. Contract loggers for the BLM have thinned stands of Douglas fir, killed weeds and planted shrubs the wild sheep savor, all to protect the Little Vulcan Mountain herd from extinction. The idea is to open up thickets surrounding the meadow where the herd forages and bears its young, allowing them to see and escape from predators. (AP Photo/Bureau of Land Management, Glenn Paulson)
Bighorn sheep graze in a meadow on Little Vulcan Mountain, near Curlew, Washington, in 2004. (AP Photo/Bureau of Land Management, Glenn Paulson, file)

Associated Press

YAKIMA — A bighorn sheep from the Cleman Mountain herd in central Washington state has tested positive for a lethal disease, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said this week.

A hunter in the area saw a dead lamb and other lambs that were acting lethargic. Upon investigation, biologists found a dead lamb and were able to collect samples for testing. That test came back positive for the bacteria that causes pneumonia in wild bighorn populations, the agency said.

The department will monitor the herd and collect lung and nasal swab samples from any animals harvested during this season’s remaining special permit hunts. More samples will help the department determine the extent of the disease outbreak in the Cleman Mountain herd.

The bacteria is usually fatal across a significant portion of the herd, the agency said. There is no treatment for wild bighorn sheep, and no preventative vaccine.

Past pneumonia outbreaks among bighorn sheep in Washington and other parts of the western United States have been linked to contact between wild sheep and domestic sheep or goats that carry Mycoplasma but are unaffected by the bacteria.

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