Excluding domestic sheep

Excluding domestic sheep

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
During an interview with Doctor Maggie Highland, Veterinary Medical Officer - Researcher with the USDA she talked of research identifying mycoplasma ovipneumoniae in host species outside of the subfamily Caprinae which is primarily sheep, goats and musk ox. It is found in many members of the deer family. This mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is the technical term for a bacterium that can creates respiratory disease, like pneumonia, in sheep and bighorns. Since domestic sheep have been almost exclusively blamed for spreading pneumonia to big horn sheep, a logical question is… are you saying that the pneumonia organism that exists in the deer is genetically distinct from the pneumonia organism that you see in domestic and bighorn sheep.

We don't know that yet. I only know that based on the area of that bacterium genome that we look at thus far. It tells us that it's Michael plasma over pneumonia so we know that these different species carry mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. What we don't know is how genetically related they are or if they are different. We need to investigate that further. I do know there has been the mycoplasma ovipneumoniae that we have found in the caribou the moose in Alaska, Alaska doesn't have pneumonia problems in their wildlife species although they have the presence of mycoplasma ovipneumoniae.”

Wouldn't domestic sheepherders be relieved if they couldn't be exclusively blamed for infecting bighorns.

Previous ReportBison Covid Data
Next ReportEpigenetics