Suspended UI prof repeats sheep claims in journal

A University of Idaho professor suspended from sheep research duties since June has repeated claims that wild bighorns don't catch fatal diseases from domestic sheep, despite pledging not to disseminate information on the issue until the school completes an inquiry into her work. An August interview with Marie Bulgin, head of the UI's Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center in Caldwell, appeared in October's edition of The Shepherd: A Guide for Sheep and Farm Life, an industry journal based in New Washington, Ohio. In the story, Bulgin insists there's no proof bighorns die after catching diseases from domestic sheep on the range. "It's the bighorns' own pathogens that are killing them - not something they are picking up from domestic sheep or goats," she is quoted as saying. Wildlife advocates said her comments are virtually identical to those that helped lead to the UI inquiry. It was launched five months ago after environmentalists produced documents showing her research center had gathered evidence that bighorns get deadly disease from domestic sheep on the range since 1994 - a period in which Bulgin had been testifying for the ranching industry in federal court and at the Idaho Legislature that no such documentation existed...read more