Bighorns and MOVI

[Duck-Slayer]

Very good podcast, touches most aspects of bighorns and MOVI, it’s worth a listen, unbiased.
Matt

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Update with Dr. Maggie Highland

Play Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Update with Dr. Maggie Highland by American Sheep Industry Association on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.

m.soundcloud.com

 

[Oak]

I will listen, but I wonder how you got to the conclusion of “unbiased” with Dr Highland as the guest? I will only be listening to see how she’s obfuscating the issue now.

 

[232401a]

it’s worth a listen, unbiased.

Podcast literally hosted by the wool industry, (ASIA)

Margaret Highland takes money from ASIA, others in the wool industry and the North American Packgoat Association.

Every paper I found with her name on it was funded by the wool industry.

She has picked her side on this issue. Amazingly, it's the side that is paying her. If she comes to a conclusion they don't like, she has no grant money, no work...

 

[Duck-Slayer]

what papers have you written? Mr. Scientists?
Matt

 

[Hunting Wife]

Helpful rules for assessing degree of reliability and bias in research.

Rule number 1: Who funded it?
Rule number 2: Does the researcher have a financial interest in the result?
Rule number 3: Have unaffiliated outside researchers been able to replicate it?
Rule number 4: Has it survived peer review?

I don’t know her and didn’t listen so no skin in the game. Does she pass the checklist? Honest question.

 

[Oak]

what papers have you written? Mr. Scientists?
Matt

What papers has Dr. Highland published on what she described as “the most important discovery” she has made on the topic? Post them up and we will discuss.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

What papers has Dr. Highland published on what she described as “the most important discovery” she has made on the topic? Post them up and we will discuss.

Tell WSF and there political ties to stop suppressing information… who do you think forced her out of Washington State….. your blinders are on @Oak you see it one way and that’s it…. She definitely makes a case against both sheep and goats in the podcast….
Matt

 

[Oak]

Show me the peer-reviewed papers that support her case.

 

[Oak]

She definitely makes a case against both sheep and goats in the podcast….
Matt

Can you describe what case she DOES make in the podcast?

 

[El Jason]

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/24/12/pdfs/18-0632-combined.pdf

 

[Oak]

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/24/12/pdfs/18-0632-combined.pdf

Thanks, JLS. That research letter was published in Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2018. A research letter is not peer-reviewed, and is limited to a 50-word abstract, 800 words of text, and 10 references. The short abstract for that letter (emphasis mine):

Elucidating the emergence of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae–associated respiratory disease in ruminants requires identification of the pathogen host range. This bacterium was thought to be host restricted to subfamily Caprinae, but we describe its identification in healthy moose, caribou, and mule deer and diseased mule and white-tailed deer, all species in subfamily Capreolinae.

Subsequent to that research letter, in 2021, Dr. Highland and two of the co-authors of the letter published this "resource announcement" in Microbiology, that states:

The mycoplasmas represent a large and diverse group of bacteria, many of which are pathogens of humans and animals. Here, we describe a draft genome sequence of a novel Mycoplasma species. This novel Mycoplasma species has potential to cause false-positive PCR results for Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, a respiratory-associated pathogen of ruminants.

And:

We detected this novel bacterium, with various prevalences, in respiratory samples collected in the United States from sheep (aoudad, bighorn, Dall’s, and domestic), bison (wood and American), deer (black-tailed, white-tailed, and mule), caribou, goats (mountain and domestic), elk, moose, muskox, and pronghorn.

In other words, they didn't find M. ovipneumoniae in all those other species, they identified a novel bacterium. And to my knowledge, Dr. Highland has not published a peer-reviewed paper about M. ovipneumoniae being identified in species outside of subfamily Caprinae.

 

[BAKPAKR]

Why are scientific papers so boring?

I made a boo-boo in 2006 and took goats into sheep country. I had not even heard of pneumonia in sheep at that time. Fortunately, the goats didn’t swap any bodily fluids with bighorns and I didn’t hear of a subsequent pneumonia outbreak in the area.

Today, I would not take a goat, a domestic sheep, or a pet moose/caribou/musk ox back there. Bighorns are just too precious of a resource to take the chance.

 

[Dinkshooter]

For banter

 

[El Jason]

Why you pickin n IPAs Broham?

 

[Dinkshooter]

I have IPA tits myself, just like goat packers.

 

[Sytes]

Was reading another thread on HT related to BHA's WSF statement. Came across Randy's post, as it directly relates to his [Baty's] llama use in the backcountry.

And specific to the content related to pack goat use:

"Whatever science shows is best for wild sheep, count me in. Seeing the lack of protocols followed by many domestic sheep grazers, it makes it hard to ask owners of pack goats, now maybe llamas, for self-imposed modification of pack animal use, when known disease vectors of domestic sheep are not being managed/controlled as tightly as promised."

Post in thread 'BHA Wild Sheep Policy Statement' https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/bha-wild-sheep-policy-statement.305703/post-3180571

As with all backcountry domestic use, seems there are constant "threats" to our wildlife, not simply wild sheep.
I'm supportive of testing all domestic pack animals, within a time frame defined by some collective science that reduces risk to sheep, etc.
Challenge is the big elephant in the room... Extra steps (current stock collective resistance) and enforcement.

All comes down to the almighty $.

 

[232401a]

We could really use a llama meme right now.

Unless we have llama sponsors. In which case, no llama memes