Oregon ramps up research of bighorn sheep

This is usually around the time when Oregon wildlife officials start planning to move some bighorn sheep around Eastern Oregon in an effort to bolster genetic diversity.  Not this year.  The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has instead focused its efforts on researching a bacteria that can lead to pneumonia in the animals, a problem that has killed large numbers of bighorn sheep throughout the West over the past several years. Bighorn sheep get the respiratory pathogen from domestic sheep and goats, which it doesn’t affect.  “When wild sheep get it, it’s pretty devastating,” said Autumn Larkins, assistant district wildlife biologist and sheep capture boss for ODFW. “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on.”  Early this year, Nevada wildlife officials killed a herd of about two dozen of the animals located in the northern part of that state as a way to keep the disease from spreading — including to bighorn sheep in Southern Oregon. Similar kills took place in Washington, Utah and Canada in previous years to block pneumonia from