# Goats and Bighorn sheep



## timk (Apr 23, 2009)

Is there any studies or evidence that domestic goats can or have transmitted disease to bighorn sheep? If so, are there any precautions that I should take when packing in bighorn sheep country??

Timk


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## Rex (Nov 30, 2008)

Well... thats the 64 million dollar question. Pasturella is the big issue here since its fatal to Big Horns and can spread through an entire population in a few weeks.

Studies seem to show that domestic goats do not transmit Pasturella to Big Horns. Unfortunately there have been a few instances where a goat was found in the area of a Pasturella die off and was assumed to be the culprit.

At this point no one wants to take the chance, so goat packers have voluntarily agreed to stay away from areas used heavily by Big Horns and to tie goats at night when Big Horns could be near. Also its important to haze Big Horns away from your goats if they start to approach since it is believed that fluid transfer must take place to transmit it from one animal to another, such as a sneeze.

If we don't voluntarily take steps to eliminate the interaction between our goats and Big Horns there will no doubt be regulations enacted to keep us out of those areas all together.

The NAPgA web site has several good articles on the subject including the WSU study where goats did not infect Big Horns. http://www.napga.org/links.asp?pageid=3&menuID=


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## timk (Apr 23, 2009)

Is there a test or vaccine/treatment for pasturella for goats?


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## sweetgoatmama (Dec 10, 2008)

Pasteurella is a pneumonia type disease and can be treated with antibiotics. Of course, this doesn't work with wild sheep. It can be tested for and there are several strains. The strain that affects wild sheep is apparently not the same one that affects goats but try telling that to a bighorn manager. They lump them all together.

There is a vaccine but apparently it's not really very effective.

Even with hard evidence from the vets who have researched this it's one of those knee-jerk reaction diseases with land managers.


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