University researcher tests new wild sheep vaccine

A Washington State University wildlife disease researcher produced an experimental vaccine that appears to have protected four bighorn sheep against deadly pneumonia. Subramaniam Srikumaran, the WSU professor in Pullman, says his findings are a promising but concedes years of work remain to help safeguard wild bighorn herds from periodic die-offs that have plagued the species in Idaho. His research comes at a time when domestic sheep that roam the same habitat as bighorns are blamed for spreading disease to their more vulnerable wild cousins. That's led federal managers to close sheep grazing allotments in Idaho's Payette National Forest to protect the wild sheep. That move has angered the region's ranchers, who see the federal government as protecting wildlife over their livelihoods. Srikumaran told the Lewiston Tribune this week that he developed the vaccine in his laboratory, then gave it to four bighorn sheep. They all survived after being exposed to a pathogen that causes pneumonia. Sheep not given the vaccine died within days of exposure. He acknowledged the sample size of inoculated bighorns was small, but "100 percent is something convincing to me."...more