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07-06-2018, 08:33 AM
GF&P keeping eye on fatal disease in new species
By Mark Watson Black Hills Pioneer Jun 26, 2018
Several bighorn sheep from the Lead-Deadwood herd have tested positive for a pneumonia-causing bacteria that has decimated some herds throughout the West. Pioneer file photo by Vicki Strickland
SPEARFISH — The report of a well-known disease being discovered for the first time in new species has some employees of the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks keeping their eyes out for additional studies.
A story published last week by the Associated Press reported that Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae has been identified in several species of ungulates including bison, mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose and caribou. The report has been submitted by wildlife officials; however, it has not yet been published in a scientific journal which would mean the study would be more accepted by the scientific community.
Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is the disease that has decimated bighorn sheep herds throughout the West including the Custer State Park herd.
“We certainly have our eye on it, and we’d want to see more testing and see what they find before what we can say what that means for bighorn sheep management,” said John Kanta, regional terrestrial resources supervisor with the GF&P.
Previously thought to only effect sheep and goats, both wild and domestic, the new findings may be a game-changer.
The disease may have contributed to the death of an emaciated caribou from the Fortymile herd near Fairbanks, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said.
Lung samples of the caribou found dead last month were sent to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman, Washington, where the disease was confirmed.
Four Alaska caribou herds have tested positive for the bacterium, but sickness has not been observed, said Bruce Dale, the director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation. Stored samples from the Fortymile caribou herd from 2013-14 have also tested positive for Movi, he said.
“It’s been around for a while — it’s not like we’re expecting this to be rampantly present,” Dale said. “There’s been lots of cases of pneumonia in our caribou studies — never associated with Movi before, but always associated with being in poor condition.”
“What we don’t know if it is impacting other ungulates in the same way as it does bighorn sheep. There seems to be some indication that it does,” Kanta said.
He said there are two scenarios that would both be bad.
First, the disease would affect other ungulate species as much as the bighorns causing them to die; and secondly, the animals would be carriers of the disease that could then pass it along to bighorns and mountain goats.
“Worst-case scenario is that these animals can get Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae just like bighorn sheep,” Kanta said.
No other species in South Dakota has tested positively for the disease; however, the GF&P hasn’t tested for the disease and its staff handle the lion’s share of wildlife disease testing.
If, and that’s a big if, Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae can be transmitted from one species, such as deer, to bighorn sheep, it may explain how the Deadwood herd of bighorn sheep contracted the disease.
“That’s definitely where this raises an eyebrow,” Kanta said.
In February 2015, members of the GF&P traveled to Alberta, Canada to capture and relocate bighorns to the slopes around Deadwood. Twenty-six animals were captured and all were tested for diseases, including Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, before they were transported to South Dakota. A little more than a year later, the first transported bighorn tested positive for the disease.
About 20 of the Deadwood bighorns have died presumably from pneumonia, Kanta said.
“It’s nothing where we’re going to take it to the bank, but if what they’re reporting is true, that definitely has implications and would possibly explain other scenarios like Deadwood,” Kanta said. “We didn’t think we had any domestics, so where the heck did they get it. Well, possibly another ungulate.”
There may be a silver lining in eradicating the disease in individual herds.
In 2004, the Custer State Park bighorns contracted the disease. It killed 70-80 percent of the park’s 2,000 bighorns. Wildlife managers discovered only a handful of the sheep shed the pathogens, or transmitted, the disease to other animals.
Two years ago, wildlife managers discovered there were only three bighorns in the herd that shed the disease and were responsible for killing most if not all the lambs of the year.
Those three were removed from the herd, and to date, not a single bighorn in the park has died due to the pneumonia
By Mark Watson Black Hills Pioneer Jun 26, 2018
Several bighorn sheep from the Lead-Deadwood herd have tested positive for a pneumonia-causing bacteria that has decimated some herds throughout the West. Pioneer file photo by Vicki Strickland
SPEARFISH — The report of a well-known disease being discovered for the first time in new species has some employees of the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks keeping their eyes out for additional studies.
A story published last week by the Associated Press reported that Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae has been identified in several species of ungulates including bison, mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose and caribou. The report has been submitted by wildlife officials; however, it has not yet been published in a scientific journal which would mean the study would be more accepted by the scientific community.
Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is the disease that has decimated bighorn sheep herds throughout the West including the Custer State Park herd.
“We certainly have our eye on it, and we’d want to see more testing and see what they find before what we can say what that means for bighorn sheep management,” said John Kanta, regional terrestrial resources supervisor with the GF&P.
Previously thought to only effect sheep and goats, both wild and domestic, the new findings may be a game-changer.
The disease may have contributed to the death of an emaciated caribou from the Fortymile herd near Fairbanks, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said.
Lung samples of the caribou found dead last month were sent to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman, Washington, where the disease was confirmed.
Four Alaska caribou herds have tested positive for the bacterium, but sickness has not been observed, said Bruce Dale, the director of the state Division of Wildlife Conservation. Stored samples from the Fortymile caribou herd from 2013-14 have also tested positive for Movi, he said.
“It’s been around for a while — it’s not like we’re expecting this to be rampantly present,” Dale said. “There’s been lots of cases of pneumonia in our caribou studies — never associated with Movi before, but always associated with being in poor condition.”
“What we don’t know if it is impacting other ungulates in the same way as it does bighorn sheep. There seems to be some indication that it does,” Kanta said.
He said there are two scenarios that would both be bad.
First, the disease would affect other ungulate species as much as the bighorns causing them to die; and secondly, the animals would be carriers of the disease that could then pass it along to bighorns and mountain goats.
“Worst-case scenario is that these animals can get Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae just like bighorn sheep,” Kanta said.
No other species in South Dakota has tested positively for the disease; however, the GF&P hasn’t tested for the disease and its staff handle the lion’s share of wildlife disease testing.
If, and that’s a big if, Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae can be transmitted from one species, such as deer, to bighorn sheep, it may explain how the Deadwood herd of bighorn sheep contracted the disease.
“That’s definitely where this raises an eyebrow,” Kanta said.
In February 2015, members of the GF&P traveled to Alberta, Canada to capture and relocate bighorns to the slopes around Deadwood. Twenty-six animals were captured and all were tested for diseases, including Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, before they were transported to South Dakota. A little more than a year later, the first transported bighorn tested positive for the disease.
About 20 of the Deadwood bighorns have died presumably from pneumonia, Kanta said.
“It’s nothing where we’re going to take it to the bank, but if what they’re reporting is true, that definitely has implications and would possibly explain other scenarios like Deadwood,” Kanta said. “We didn’t think we had any domestics, so where the heck did they get it. Well, possibly another ungulate.”
There may be a silver lining in eradicating the disease in individual herds.
In 2004, the Custer State Park bighorns contracted the disease. It killed 70-80 percent of the park’s 2,000 bighorns. Wildlife managers discovered only a handful of the sheep shed the pathogens, or transmitted, the disease to other animals.
Two years ago, wildlife managers discovered there were only three bighorns in the herd that shed the disease and were responsible for killing most if not all the lambs of the year.
Those three were removed from the herd, and to date, not a single bighorn in the park has died due to the pneumonia