University of Idaho had evidence of bighorn disease link, group says

Environmentalists aiming to close the West's public lands to grazing contend a University of Idaho research center had evidence for more than a decade that bighorn sheep can contract deadly diseases from domestic sheep on the open range, despite its coordinator's insistence to the contrary. The UI Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center's Marie Bulgin, a ranching advocate who has long denied evidence of open-range transmission, said she didn't know about the studies, though they were conducted by her own scientists starting in 1994. This is a sore subject in Idaho, with U.S. Forest Service managers now considering closing grazing allotments near Hell's Canyon to protect bighorns. Jon Marvel, of Western Watersheds Project, says Bulgin should have known about the evidence, even as she was testifying in federal court and at the Idaho Legislature that no open-range transmission had been documented. AP