HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by George, J. L. Articles by Miller, M. W. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by George, J. L. Articles by Miller, M. W.

¹ Colorado Division of Wildlife, 6060 Broadway Street, Denver, Colorado 80216, USA
² Colorado Division of Wildlife, Wildlife Research Center, 317 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526-2097, USA
³ Corresponding author (email: mike.miller{at}state.co.us)

ABSTRACT:   A pneumonia epidemic reduced bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) survival and recruitment during 1997–2000 in a population comprised of three interconnected wintering herds (Kenosha Mountains, Sugarloaf Mountain, Twin Eagles) that inhabited the Kenosha and Tarryall Mountain ranges in central Colorado, USA. The onset of this epidemic coincided temporally and spatially with the appearance of a single domestic sheep (Ovis aires) on the Sugarloaf Mountain herd’s winter range in December 1997. Although only bighorns in the Sugarloaf Mountain herd were affected in 1997–98, cases also occurred during 1998–99 in the other two wintering herds, likely after the epidemic spread via established seasonal movements of male bighorns. In all, we located 86 bighorn carcasses during 1997–2000. Three species of Pasteurella were isolated in various combinations from affected lung tissues from 20 bighorn carcasses where tissues were available and suitable for diagnostic evaluation; with one exception, β-hemolytic mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica (primarily reported as biogroup 1^G or 1^G) was isolated from lung tissues of cases evaluated during winter 1997–98. The epidemic dramatically lowered adult bighorn monthly survival in all three herds; a model that included an acute epidemic effect, differing between sexes and with vaccination status, that diminished linearly over the next 12 mo best represented field data. In addition to the direct mortality associated with epidemics in these three herds, lamb recruitment in years following the pneumonia epidemic also was depressed as compared to years prior to the epidemic. Based on observations presented here, pasteurellosis epidemics in free-ranging bighorn sheep can arise through incursion of domestic sheep onto native ranges, and thus minimizing contact between domestic and bighorn sheep appears to be a logical principle for bighorn sheep conservation.
  Key words:  Bighorn sheep, domestic sheep, epidemic, Mannheimia spp., Ovis canadensis, Pasteurella spp., pasteurellosis, survival, vaccine.