The government of British Columbia has updated its regulations to empower wildlife officers to euthanize escaped or left-behind domestic sheep to safeguard wild sheep populations. These changes in the Wildlife Act aim to prevent disease transmission and potential large-scale die-offs among wild herds. While domestic and wild sheep can both contract similar infectious agents, their immune systems vary, posing a risk to wild sheep. One such bacterium, M. ovi (Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae), commonly found in domestic sheep and goats, rarely causes illness in these animals but can be fatal to wild sheep, leading to pneumonia.
The Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship highlighted that M. ovi can spread through wild populations via grazing, shared water or salt sources. The updated regulations now classify abandoning sheep on Crown land as an offense, granting the ministry the authority to take ownership of these animals.
