Biologists Will Drop Pellets With Medicine To Bighorn Sheep

Sun., Dec. 31, 1995

From Staff And Wire Reports

After rounding up bighorn sheep stricken by bacterial infections, biologists have decided to try to halt the spread of the illness by dropping medicine-laced pellets from the air to the animals.

The pellets will be delivered next week to the wild sheep on the banks of the Snake River in southeastern Washington, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday.

The sheep are suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms caused by bacteria that produce deadly toxins in the animals when they’re under stress.

Earlier this month, 72 bighorns were captured along the Washington side of the Snake River, between Asotin and the mouth of the Grande Ronde River.

They were taken to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s wildlife health lab for treatment.

Eleven have died, and several others are very sick

Last week, it appeared the disease was spreading because biologists spotted carcasses near the Idaho and Oregon borders.

Biologists decided to try treating the sheep in the wild because isolating the sheep and taking them to the lab did not seem to step the spread of the disease or keep the sheep alive.

Also, medicated feed seemed to help save some sheep during a similar outbreak in Oregon in the early 1980s.

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