ANNETTE RINK
Annett Rink (DVM, PhD) has been one of the few credentialed researchers to seriously question the disease threat of domestic sheep. Rink is the director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease and Food Safety Laboratory in Reno (Hoffman 2007; NDA 2012). According to Hoffman:
“In a September 2006 memo, Rink wrote that disease transmission from domestic to bighorn sheep is a ‘legend’ and a ‘perception perpetuated by some individuals.’ In the same note, written on Nevada Department of Agriculture letterhead, Rink urges the U.S. Department of the Interior to look at the bighorn sheep issue in light of its effect on farmers and ranchers” (2007).
Rink wrote the 2006 memo to the Interior Department Deputy Assistant Secretary of the time: Julie McDonald (Hoffman 2007). McDonald “resigned [in 2007] after an inspector general’s report found that she had aggressively manipulated scientific reports to minimize endangered species protections and shared internal documents with agriculture industry groups” (Hoffman 2007). In addition to criticizing the threat of domestic sheep, as of 2007, Rink also believed that Sierra bighorns were not distinct from desert bighorns and should never have been listed as an endangered species (Hoffman 2007).
More detail on Rink’s skepticism of bighorn disease science is in her critique of the USFS’s 2006 Payette National Forest risk assessment (Rink 2011).
MARIE BULGIN & THE UI SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATION
One of the most outspoken credentialed bighorn disease science critics is Marie Bulgin (DVM, MBA), who was a University of Idaho (UI) professor of veterinary medicine, an Idaho Wool Growers Association president, and the coordinator of UI’s Caine Veterinary Teaching Center in Caldwell from 2003-2010 (Barker 2009; Hoffman 2007; Miller and Bonner 2009; CVTC 2012). Bulgin and other Caine Center colleagues questioned the validity of captivity experiments demonstrating domestic sheep’s disease threat to bighorns because they happened in pens instead of the wild where circumstances are different (Hoffman 2007).
However, Bulgin and the Caine Center became the subjects of a UI conflict of interest investigation begun in 2009 after she “repeatedly testified before the Idaho legislature and in federal court” (Barker 2009) that evidence documenting disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorns in the wild did not exist. Bulgin’s statements were not factual because studies described in an unpublished paper showed otherwise. In fact, the research proving Bulgin’s statements incorrect was conducted at the Caine Center (Barker 2009). Barker explains:
“The unpublished paper discussed two different bighorn sheep, a ewe found with domestic rams in Nevada and a bighorn ram found grazing with domestic ewes in Oregon. Both died after they were brought to the Caine Center and isolated in 1994. The same strains of the bacteria pasteurella were found in the domestics and the wild sheep in both cases. The paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases in 1997” (2009).
Bulgin worked at the Caine Center in 1994 and became its director in 2003 (Miller 2009). According to Barker: “Scientists involved in the study said a series of personnel issues and changed assignments kept the paper from publication, not politics” (2009). Bulgin claimed to have not been aware of the research, but one of the paper’s co-authors, Dave Hunter (former Idaho Department of Fish and Game veterinarian), had trouble believing that (Barker 2009). In fact, Bulgin’s daughter was a Caine lab technician in 1994, and she aided with DNA analysis involved with the range transmission studies (Miller and Bonner 2009).
Clearly publicized controversy over the studies’ paper started during a 2007 meeting where Caine Center scientists questioned the wild-domestic sheep pneumonia bacteria connection (Barker 2009). While holding the unpublished paper, David Jessup (a senior wildlife veterinarian for the California Department of Fish and Game in 2009) called out Alton Ward (a Caine Center researcher) and said: “I don’t have to prove anything. You proved it yourself at your own lab” (Barker 2009). Jessup added that: “Once confronted with it, he realized it was a major mistake and said they would go back and modify the paper and resubmit it” (Barker 2009).
According to Miller: “Jim Jeffress, a Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist who helped transport one of the 1994 bighorns to Idaho for analysis, said he was perplexed that the 1994 deaths were not publicized, either by the university or the state of Idaho. ‘It’s been very disheartening for me that this was never brought forth to the scientific community,’ Jeffress said” (2009).
However, Jeffress wrote an abstract on the Nevada bighorn death analysis, and it was published in the proceedings of the Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council’s 2008 symposium (Jeffress 2008). In fact, the study is described on this website on the Disease Transmission Evidence page. Also, Idaho Department of Fish and Game veterinarian Mark Drew presented the unpublished studies at a Canadian wildlife disease conference in August 2008 (Miller and Bonner 2009).
In June 2009, Neil Thagard (Wild Sheep Foundation representative) stated: “Through the years, Dr. Bulgin has misused her position to discredit published science with misinformation—jeopardizing the existence of the bighorn sheep, a native species” (2009). Thagard went on to declare: “At this time, due to the misdirected information that has been provided by the University of Idaho’s Dr. Marie Bulgin, the Wild Sheep Foundation will be actively discouraging western wildlife management agencies from utilizing the services of the U of I Caine Teaching Center for bighorn laboratory testing” (2009).
During UI’s 2009 investigation, it put Bulgin on administrative leave (with pay) from Caine Center duties, let her continue teaching, and said she would not be involved with bighorn-domestic sheep disease-related issues during the inquiry (University of Idaho 2009; Miller and Bonner 2009). In 2010, UI cleared Bulgin of scientific misconduct and allowed her to continue Caine Center duties. However, she was supposed to follow a plan to prevent conflicts of interest. The UI investigation did not include interviews with Bulgin or Caine Center staff members (Miller 2010). UI Vice President Jack McIver remarked: “Misconduct does not ask about whether you know about everything” (Miller 2010).
In a newspaper article regarding Bulgin being cleared of misconduct, Miller states: “Bulgin said that she remained unconvinced that bighorns die after encountering domestic sheep, even after reviewing the 1994 studies at her lab. Other factors, including stress, are more likely culprits, she said” (2010).
Bulgin added: “I’m saying, ‘We don’t have solid proof.’ When we’re trying to kick people . . . off the range, we ought to think twice” (Miller 2010). Bulgin has also said: “I’m not against bighorn sheep. I’m just for agriculture” (Miller 2009). More detail on Bulgin’s skepticism of bighorn disease research can be found in “A Review of Bighorn Sheep Articles used for the Payette DSIES [sic]” (Bulgin and Urbigkit 2011). It is a 24-page critique presented with a UI letterhead and posted on NDOW’s website as supporting material for a portion of a September 2011 state Wildlife Commission meeting focused on the history of bighorns in the Great Basin (Bulgin and Urbigkit 2011; NDOW 2012).
REFERENCES
Barker, Rocky. 2009. Was bighorn research suppressed? – The U of I investigates its Caldwell veterinary center amid allegations of conflict of interest. Idaho Statesman. June 10.
Bulgin, Marie S., and Cat Urbigkit. 2011. A review of bighorn sheep articles used for the Payette DSIES. http://www.ndow.org/learn/com/mtg/2011/092311_support/7B_Part3.pdf (accessed December 24, 2011).
Caine Veterinary Teaching Center (CVTC). 2012. Marie S. Bulgin, DVA, MBA. University of Idaho. http://www.cainecenter.uidaho.edu/bulgin.htm (accessed July 17, 2012).
Hoffman, Nathaniel. 2007. Sheep vs. sheep: A legal battle over Hells Canyon grazing could determine the future of wild sheep and sheep ranching across the West. High Country News. October 1. http://www.hcn.org/issues/355/17251 (accessed March 4, 2009).
Miller, John. 2009. Bighorn Battle Intensifies. Wild Sheep Foundation. http://www.wild sheepfoundation.org/Page.php/News/80/1243832400-1246334400 (accessed January 7, 2012).
Miller, John. 2010. UI professor cleared of 'scientific misconduct' in sheep comments after 7-month investigation. StarTribune. January 5. http://www.startribune.com/templates/ Print_This_ Story?sid=80703797 (accessed December 24, 2011).
Miller, John, and Jessie Bonner. 2009. UI prof takes leave in midsts of bighorn probe. Wild Sheep Foundation. http://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/Page.php/News/84/1243832400-1246334400 (accessed January 7, 2012).
Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA). 2012. Animal Industry Division Staff. http://agri. nv.gov/Animal2_staff.htm (accessed July 18, 2012).
Nevada Division of Wildlife (NDOW). 2001. Nevada Division of Wildlife’s Bighorn Sheep Management Plan: October 2001. Reno. http://www.ndow.org/about/pubs/plans/bighorn_ management_plan.pdf (accessed October 15, 2011). [govt. doc.]
Rink, Annette. 2011. Comments on the ‘Risk Analysis of Disease Transmision between Domestic Sheep and Bighorn Sheep on the Payette National Forest, 2006.’ http://www. ndow.org/learn/com/mtg/2011/092311_support/7B_Part2.pdf (accessed July 21, 2012).
Thagard, Neil. 2009. Misinformation Has Attributed to the Severe Declines in Some Bighorn Sheep Populations. Wild Sheep Foundation. http://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/Page. php/News/83/1243832400-1246334400 (accessed January 7, 2012).
University of Idaho. 2009. University of Idaho Statement: Update on Bighorn Sheep Research Investigation. http://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/Page.php/News/87/12438324 00-1246334400 (accessed January 7, 2012).