Wildlife Disease
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Rot is caused by freeze-thaw cycles in unsanitary snow- We just have to keep pointing out that persistant winter feeding of elk breeds disease. Now 23 elk have been put down for what is thought to be foot rot. No doubt more will die. Foot rot suspected in elk deaths on refuge. By Cory Hatch.…
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Currently Chronic Wasting Disease does not infect humans, but . . . Chronic wasting disease is spreading more and more widely. Our anti-conservation friends in the Department of Livestock and the various anti-wolf groups worry about brucellosis and dog tapeworms, but here is something that would be truly terrifying. Prions jumped from sheep probably to…
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More reporting about the bighorn/domestic sheep disease study Other than the study itself, this is the first time that I’ve heard Dr. Srikmaran talk about last year’s study which confirms that domestic sheep diseases kill bighorn sheep. “I am not that happy about this finding. Some people’s livelihood depends on domestic sheep,” [But the] “organisms…
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Another 2010-was-a-deadly-year-for-bighorn story- The culprit is almost entirely pneumonia, and almost all of it, maybe all of it, comes from domestic sheep and goats. The Western Watersheds Project, and closely related groups like Advocates for the West, are just about the only organizations that are willing to step forward, tell the truth, and go after…
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Twenty-one more dead bighorn- Pneumonia persists in Anaconda bighorns. Montana Standard. Seems to me like Western Watersheds Project is about the only private organization doing anything to stop the spread of this disease that is taking such an awful toll.
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Don’t color outside the lines The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has released its Draft Bighorn Sheep Management Plan which essentially draws lines around existing bighorn sheep populations and prevents recovery to historical habitat. This is a big problem because the bighorn population has been in steep decline due to diseases spread by domestic…
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It’s been a bad year for bighorn sheep in Montana. Spread of Bighorn Sheep Pneumonia Continues – New West While we see an increasing amount of media attention that bighorns are dying of disease, unfortunately, with this article, there is a familiar omission of context regarding a likely source of disease for bighorns in general;…
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Forget the manufactured scare about tapeworms, it’s time to be alert for real disease dangers if you are outdoors- I got my first tick the other day while hiking the foothills in the Deep Creeks SW of Pocatello. Despite numerous forays this year, I haven’t seen many ticks — luck? Nevertheless, this is the time…