| Project Title: Disease Analysis for Big Horn Sheep |
Location(s) of Project Activity: Badlands National Park |
| Task Agreement: P17AC00057 |
Partner Institution South Dakota State University Federal Agency: National Park Service |
| Project Start Year: 2017 |
Student Involvement: Yes |
| Project Funds $30,000.00 |
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| Principal Investigator(s) Jonathan Jenks |
Federal Agency Contact Eddie Childers |
| Project Scope of Work The purpose of this project is for South Dakota State University to provide a student to develop a method to field-validate disease transmission in the Badlands National Park on the Bighorn sheep population. Bacterial lung infections and other diseases have recently spread rapidly in other sheep populations throughout the west and are known to have caused dramatic, almost immediate, declines. This outcome was likely the result of a previous reduction in population size of bighorn sheep in Badlands National Park. This project will provide the data and tools needed to assess disease transmission risks, evaluate management alternatives, and engage the state of South Dakota as a partner who has jurisdiction over bighorn sheep, livestock, and transmit-able diseases outside the Park. The objectives are to evaluate the current status of bighorn sheep within the Park and evaluate how disease is transmitted among individual herd members relative to age and sex. The project will provide information to mitigate concern by documenting current status of the population, improve understanding of disease transmission within bighorn sheep herds, and provide options for mitigating future disease epizootics within Badlands National Park and other western Parks subject to pneumonia disease epizootics. |
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| Project Modification 1 Year: 2017 Task Modification Number: 0001 Funds: $136,912.00 |
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| Project Modification 3 Year: 2018 Task Modification Number: 0003 Funds: $60,000.00 |
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