9/20/2007 1:24:00
Disease brings restriction on transport of Montana sheep
By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A potentially fatal sheep disease spread by gnats has triggered a quarantine in eastern Montana, preventing ranchers from moving their animals at a time of year when lambs are shipped out, often to Colorado feedlots.
State veterinarian Marty Zaluski's order this week prohibits any transportation of sheep that are in 16 of Montana's 56 counties. The disease bluetongue has been confirmed in tests from eight flocks in six counties and is suspected in hundreds of sheep, said Lisa Schmidt, spokeswoman for the Montana Department of Livestock.
The main consequence of the quarantine is that ranchers must now feed sheep they assumed would be gone, and producers without available pasture may have to buy hay, said Rodney Kott, a Montana State University sheep specialist who has not seen a bluetongue outbreak in the state since he joined the university nearly 30 years ago.
"The unusual thing about this situation is that this is the farthest north that this disease has been reported," said Larry Cooper, spokesman for the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Fort Collins, Colo. Because of Montana's relatively cool climate, the gnats that spread bluetongue have been uncommon in the state, ranked fifth in the nation for sheep production.
The quarantine is in effect until Oct. 10. Officials expect cold weather to eliminate gnats by then.
"We expect a killing frost by Oct. 9 and that should reduce the risk of spreading bluetongue significantly," Zaluski said in a statement.
Mary Jane Beadle of the Roundup area north of Billings said Thursday that the apparently healthy sheep operation in which she is a partner has dozens of lambs that should have been gone by now. Pasture is available and so is water, but the supply is running low at this time of year, Beadle said.
"We have feed, but it's time to sell the lambs," said Beadle, whose Rambouillet and Targhee sheep usually are trucked to Public Auction Yards in Billings around this time. Whether the quarantine affects prices the livestock draw later remains to be seen, she said.
"Usually they go down when people start bringing a lot into the market," said Beadle, a third-generation sheep producer.
Public Auction Yards held its weekly sheep sale Monday but will not hold another until the quarantine ends, spokesman Pat Goggins said. The number of sheep passing through the stockyard annually varies between about 90,000 and 150,000, Goggins said.
The quarantine is unlikely to affect the domestic supply of lamb for dinner tables, Kott said. Once the quarantine ends, lambs likely will be shipped out of the state and the rate at which they grow can be controlled in anticipation of slaughter at the usual time this winter, he said.
Although bluetongue can be fatal, it is possible for sheep to recover from it, Schmidt said. Symptoms of the disease include fever, sores, weakness and loss of wool.
The disease was confirmed earlier this month in one antelope and one one-tailed deer in Montana, and is suspected in the deaths of several hundred deer and antelope, according to the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Bluetongue is not a risk to human health, the agency said.
Zaluski's quarantine expands one he imposed last week in Musselshell County, which includes Roundup and is one of the 16 covered by the new order. The others are Big Horn, Carter, Carbon, Custer, Fallon, Fergus, Garfield, Golden Valley, Petroleum, Powder River, Prairie, Rosebud, Stillwater, Treasure and Yellowstone.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.