Volume 18, Number 3—March 2012
Research
Causes of Pneumonia Epizootics among Bighorn Sheep, Western United States, 2008–2010
Thomas E. Besser
, Margaret A. Highland, Katherine Baker, E. Frances Cassirer, Neil J. Anderson, Jennifer M. Ramsey, Kristin Mansfield, Darren L. Bruning, Peregrine Wolff, Joshua B. Smith, and Jonathan A. Jenks
, Margaret A. Highland, Katherine Baker, E. Frances Cassirer, Neil J. Anderson, Jennifer M. Ramsey, Kristin Mansfield, Darren L. Bruning, Peregrine Wolff, Joshua B. Smith, and Jonathan A. JenksTable 3
Prevalence of organisms in bighorn sheep, western United States, 2008–2010*
| Population | No. tested | No. (%) detected |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bibersteinia trehalosi | Mannheimia haemolytica | Pasteurella multocida | lktA | Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae | ||
| Affected during epizootic | ||||||
| East Fork Bitterroot, MT | 5 | 3† | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Anaconda, MT | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Bonner, MT | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Lower Rock Creek, MT | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| East Humboldt and Ruby Mountains, NV | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Spring Creek, SD | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Yakima Canyon, WA | 8 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 8 |
| Hells Canyon, OR and WA | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Total | 44 | 34 (77.3) | 25 (56.8) | 21 (47.7) | 10 (22.7) | 42 (95.5) |
| Healthy during epizootic | ||||||
| Yakima Canyon, WA | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Bonner, MT | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Spring Creek, SD | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 8 | 6 (75.0) | 4 (50.0) | 0 | 1 (12.5) | 3 (37.5) |
| Healthy, no epizootic | ||||||
| Quilomene, WA | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hells Canyon (Asotin Creek), OR and WA | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 5 | 3 (60) | 4 (80) | 1 (20) | 0 | 0 |
*Organisms detected by PCR and/or aerobic culture. MT, Montana; NV, Nevada; SD, South Dakota; WA, Washington; OR, Oregon.
†Number of bighorn sheep tested in which the given agent was detected by PCR and/or bacteriologic culture.
