By: Dave Lueneberg
You’ll often see them along the highway between Cranbrook and Fernie, and now the provincial government is doing its part to safeguard Rocky Mountain and other wild sheep.
The concern is the transmission of a disease known, in short, as M. ovi that can be carried from domestic sheep to their wild counterparts.
Basically pneumonia, it’s a bacteria commonly found in the nasal cavities of domestic sheep and goats, and while it rarely causes illness in domestic animals, it can be fatal for wild sheep.
M. ovi, experts say, its usually transferred though grazing activities, nose-to-nose contact, or sharing water or salt sources.
To curb its spread, the province has now made it illegal to release or abandon sheep on Crown Land, and any sheep caught on Crown Land will be seized.
Goats were already part of the new rules under the Wildlife Act.
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