TY - JOUR AU - Besser, Thomas AU - Highland, Margaret AU - Baker, Katherine AU - Cassirer, E. Frances AU - Anderson, Neil AU - Ramsey, Jennifer AU - Mansfield, Kristin AU - Bruning, Darren AU - Wolff, Peregrine AU - Smith, Joshua AU - Jenks, Jonathan T1 - Causes of Pneumonia Epizootics among Bighorn Sheep, Western United States, 2008–2010 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2012 VL - 18 IS - 3 SP - 406 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Epizootic pneumonia of bighorn sheep is a devastating disease of uncertain etiology. To help clarify the etiology, we used culture and culture-independent methods to compare the prevalence of the bacterial respiratory pathogens Mannheimia haemolytica, Bibersteinia trehalosi, Pasteurella multocida, and Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae in lung tissue from 44 bighorn sheep from herds affected by 8 outbreaks in the western United States. M. ovipneumoniae, the only agent detected at significantly higher prevalence in animals from outbreaks (95%) than in animals from unaffected healthy populations (0%), was the most consistently detected agent and the only agent that exhibited single strain types within each outbreak. The other respiratory pathogens were frequently but inconsistently detected, as were several obligate anaerobic bacterial species, all of which might represent secondary or opportunistic infections that could contribute to disease severity. These data provide evidence that M. ovipneumoniae plays a primary role in the etiology of epizootic pneumonia of bighorn sheep. KW - animal diseases KW - etiology KW - Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae KW - pulsed-field gel electrophoresis KW - ribosomal spacer DNA KW - bacteria KW - pneumonia KW - epizootic KW - bighorn sheep KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid1803.111554 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/3/11-1554_article ER - End of Reference