The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will begin this week to kill infected bighorn sheep in the Tieton herd about 10 miles west of Naches, Wash. Pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma bacteria already has almost extirpated the herd from a high of about 200 sheep in recent years to the current estimate of 35 to 50 animals, said Richard Harris, the department’s wildlife manager.
Biologists with Fish and Wildlife and the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services will spend the next several weeks culling the sheep , and because most of the bighorns are believed to be infected with a disease almost all of the animals will likely need to be killed, Harris said.
“A majority of the live bighorn sheep spotted during recent surveys looked to be in poor condition, with about a third of those animals coughing or showing other signs of the disease,” Harris said. “We hate to have to take this action, but we believe it’s necessary to stop the spread of a disease that could devastate adjacent herds of wild bighorn sheep in the area.”
So far, no dead or sick bighorn sheep have been found outside the Tieton herd. Read on…..