Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Great Basin CESU

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The Western Ecological Research Center of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a funding opportunity to one CESU Partner of the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU) Program. The project is titled ¿Refining Core Herd Home Range and Dispersal Kernel Estimates to inform Pathogen Spillover Risk for Desert Bighorn Sheep¿. The aim of this project is to improve effectiveness of the U.S. Forest Services¿ Risk of Contact Tool for use on desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni). Bighorn sheep (O. canadensis) have faced recurrent spillover of the bacterial respiratory pathogen Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, which is carried asymptomatically by domestic sheep and goats. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) make resource decisions (such as allocation of grazing allotments) based in part on risk of disease transmission from domestic sheep and goats to bighorn. Transmission risk is often assessed using the USFS¿ Risk of Contact Tool (Tool). Although the Tool is based on data from the Rocky Mountain bighorn (O. canadensis canadensis), it is also used to inform resource decisions for desert bighorn, which due to contrasting environmental conditions in their ranges, differ ecologically from Rocky Mountain bighorn. The goal of this project is to fill empirical gaps about desert bighorn ecology and to use this information to adapt the Risk Contact Tool for more effective use within the range of desert bighorn.

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