The Wyoming Game and Fish Department introduced Thursday that it’s investigating a uncommon illness outbreak that has killed roughly 200 pronghorn antelope within the state over the past a number of weeks. These mortalities are concentrated close to Pinedale, a sparsely populated city on the base of the Wind River Mountains.
Early outcomes from the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory present {that a} uncommon sort of bacterial pneumonia often called Mycoplasma bovis is killing the antelope. State authorities emphasize that that is totally different from Mycobacterium bovis, a similarly-named micro organism that causes tuberculosis in cattle.
The pathogen is often unfold by direct contact of nasal and respiratory secretions, and it happens globally in cattle populations, in keeping with WGFD. Symptoms embody lethargy, lack of urge for food, and coughing. The illness may have an effect on bison, whitetail deer, and mule deer, but it surely has not been proven to have an effect on home animals corresponding to horses, canine, or cats. It shouldn’t be thought-about a human well being danger, both.
“While reported Mycoplasma bovis outbreaks causing mortality in wildlife are rare, this is not the first occurrence of M. bovis being linked to pronghorn mortalities in Wyoming,” WGFD illness specialist Hank Edwards informed the Billings Gazette.
An analogous outbreak occurred through the winter of 2019 to 2020, in keeping with the company. That outbreak came about close to Gillette and concerned at the least 460 animals. It began across the identical time of 12 months (in mid-February) and tapered by early April.
The illness tends to kill antelope comparatively rapidly, as pneumonia is usually a loss of life sentence for the critters through the harsh winter months. This comes at a time when some wildlife populations throughout the West have been struggling to outlive an particularly onerous winter.
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The mass mortality occasion additionally follows a notably dangerous 12 months for EHD (also called blue tongue illness) in Wyoming, in keeping with Cowboy State Daily. The viral illness killed a major variety of deer and antelope within the state over the course of final 12 months. This led WGFD to chop roughly 8,000 antelope tags together with 3,300 mule deer tags for the 2022 fall looking season.
As of this week, WGFD workers are nonetheless eradicating carcasses from the Pinedale space. They may even proceed to euthanize dying pronghorns to stop additional unfold of the illness. It stays to be seen whether or not this occasion may have any impact on looking license quotas this fall.