Okanogan-Wenatchee NF Plan

[Nanno]

The Okanogan-Wenatchee NF in Washington is revising their forest plan. Right now they are only looking at grazing allotments for sheep and goats, but I am really tired of these folks treating sheep and goats as if they are the same species. I sent a letter objecting to their inclusion of goats, implicating them as disease carriers despite no scientific studies showing that this is the case. Sheep and goats ought to be treated as separate and distinct species. Goats are not as prone to disease as sheep, and their diseases are usually not easily transmitted between these two species. It's important for our government agents to start recognizing this! 

Here is the plan:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/17/2019-10266/okanogan-wenatchee-national-forest-washington-forest-plan-amendment-for-planning-and-management-of

Here are the instructions for where to submit comments: 

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/17/2019-10266/okanogan-wenatchee-national-forest-washington-forest-plan-amendment-for-planning-and-management-of#addresses

Comment period ends July 1st.

[Kat]

thanks for the post and the info, I was unsure of what points to make - this helps! Are there any links to studies you might have that support these 2 statements?

1. Goats are not as prone to disease as sheep
2. and their diseases are usually not easily transmitted between these two species

[Nanno]

I don't have any links to published studies. However, I spoke at length to the USDA vet who came to do the M.ovi nasal swabs on our goats a couple of years ago and these are both statements that he made. They are also just something I know through anecdotal evidence. I believe anyone who has experience raising both sheep and goats would agree to those statements. The USDA vet said that M.ovi in particular is very species-specific. He was surprised we were testing goats because he did not believe they could be a M.ovi threat to bighorn sheep. I thought this was very interesting.

The reason we don't have science to support these statements is the same reason the government doesn't have science to support their statement that sheep and goats carry the same diseases--there have been very few studies on goats. If they are going to implicate goats in wild sheep die-offs, then they had darn well better have some studies to back up that statement since they are a different species.

[Perry]

Nan's second link is to the Forest Service page for the project.  The comment page is available via a link on the right side.

https://cara.ecosystem-management.org/Pu...ject=53257

I used the above link to submit my comments.

There is also a link to the Public scoping letter on that page which includes a description of the type of comments they are interested in.  Also, it has a link to the GIS story map:

https://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJou...78e7c7e845

[Kat]

Thank you - and thanks Perry for that map link.  The sidebar on the map link states "Extensive scientific research supports a relationship between disease in bighorn sheep populations and contact with domestic sheep or goats when these species are in close proximity."

Refuting this specific statement is key, and I'm not sure how to do that - particularly when they don't state what this "extensive scientific research" is that implicates goats or pack goats.

So that will be part of my objection I guess!  Getting it in now... Nothing like last minute....  The Okanogan NF is a gorgeous resource for goat packing.

[Nanno]

Yeah, that's the problem--they don't have "extensive scientific research" on goats! They would love to assume that goats are the same as sheep, carrying and transmitting the same diseases--but those of us who own goats happen to know that they are NOT the same at all and must be researched separately before implicating them as disease carriers.

I was going over the supporting documents for the recent GMUG working draft plan here in Colorado and the ONLY research they cited that referred to domestic goats was a Pasteurella study from 1994 in which bighorns were kept in captivity with several different species of ungulates. Goats were one of only two species which had no cytotoxic Pasteurella isolates, and neither the goats (purchased from an auction house) nor the bighorns developed disease by the end of their captivity together. So the science which they are using to justify a packgoat ban states clearly that goats are not a threat! Ugh... do these people even read their own "supporting" science?

Here is the link to that study, by the way: http://media.nwsgc.org/proceedings/NWSGC...94-all.pdf
Page 4 says, "To date, no cytotoxic isolates have been identified in domestic goats..."
Page 10 says, "Contact experiments between bighorn sheep, domestic goats, llamas, cattle, and mountain goats did not result in respiratory disease or death of any of the animals."

[Taffy]

Under Lead Agencies in the federal register document it states: "The USDA ARS has special expertise in animal diseases that would inform the Forest's management decisions. The ARS would help provide the best available scientific information on the transmission of pathogens between domestic sheep and/or goats and bighorn sheep, the risk that transmission would result in disease in bighorn sheep and their herds, and potential strategies to address transmission."

Dr. Maggie Highland, who did the packgoat M. ovi study, worked at this same lab during the study. Her packgoat M. ovi study and its findings should be referred to in our comments.

[Kat]

Thank you Nanno!  Great study refuting contact transmission between domestic goats and bighorn sheep.

So, per this study:  Foreyt WJ. Effects of controlled contact exposure between healthy bighorn sheep and llamas, domestic goats, mountain goats, cattle, domestic sheep, or mouflon sheep. Proceedings of the Biennial Symposium of the Nothern Wild Sheep and Goat Council 1994;9:7–14.

"Bighorn sheep remained clinically healthy during and after contact with llamas, cattle, mountain goats, and domestic goats, but all bighorn sheep died from acute bronchopneumonia after contact with domestic sheep.."

[Kat]

re: M. ovi study - it interests me that this pathogen was found in healthy Alaskan Dall sheep and mountain goat populations

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?ad...2018_03_13

Also, that it is present in other species "...healthy moose and caribou in Alaska; a bison in Montana; mule deer in New Mexico, and diseased white-tailed deer from the upper Midwest. "

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?ad...2018_06_15


Are they going to ban all moose, deer, etc from National Forests as well?  Agree there is some "loose science" or lack thereof, going on here.

[Taffy]

Here is what I submitted to the Okanogan-Wenatchee NF. Deadline is tomorrow so please get your comments in immediately!

I wish to comment on scope of the proposed Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest Plan revision.

This proposal should NOT include management of packgoats and it should NOT lump domestic sheep and domestic goats under the same analysis. These are difference species and the one-size- fits-all approach on the science and on management is NOT justified.

It is stated in the Sheep Project: Story Map, "Extensive scientific research supports a relationship between disease in bighorn sheep populations and contact with domestic sheep or goats when these species are in close proximity."

Under Lead Agencies in the federal register document it states: "The USDA ARS has special expertise in animal diseases that would inform the Forest's management decisions. The ARS would help provide the best available scientific information on the transmission of pathogens between domestic sheep and/or goats and bighorn sheep, the risk that transmission would result in disease in bighorn sheep and their herds, and potential strategies to address transmission."

USDA ARDU completed a study of packgoat diseases by obtaining samples from 576 packgoats from 83 premises. Samples were tested by both USDA ARDU and the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL). Results from both laboratories provided sufficient and valid evidence as to the very low prevalence of disease in packgoats.

I want to reiterate - this proposal should NOT include management of packgoats.