BOISE, Idaho—The daughter of a University of Idaho professor being scrutinized by the school after she denied domestic sheep infect wild bighorn sheep on the range, even as her own lab had evidence to the contrary, is defending her mother.
Jeanne Bulgin says any suggestion her mother, Marie Bulgin, a veterinary medicine professor who now heads the UI Caine Veterinary Teaching and Research Center in Caldwell, suppressed such material is “slander.”
Jeanne Bulgin, a former microbiology lab worker, and Marie Bulgin worked at the center together in 1994; Marie Bulgin didn’t become its director until 2003.
In 1994, Jeanne Bulgin assisted in analysis of two bighorns that died of pneumonia, helping conduct DNA tests that determined that parasites behind the deaths were biochemically identical to bacteria found in the domestic sheep the wild animals had mixed with. Scientists concluded transmission occurred in the wild.
The issue of disease transmission is a hot one, as ranchers in western Idaho’s Hell’s Canyon area fight to keep the Payette National Forest from closing about 61 percent of grazing allotments there to protect bighorns from deadly diseases.
Two biologists, David Hunter, a former Idaho Department of Fish and Game veterinarian who now works in Bozeman, Mont., and Vic Coggins, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, have suggested since last week it’s unlikely Marie Bulgin wasn’t aware of the conclusions drawn from scientific work in which her own daughter played a role.
Jeanne Bulgin said that’s incorrect.
“It was never my practice to discuss research with my mother because she was not in any way supervising my work or on my research team,” Jeanne Bulgin told The Associated Press in an e-mail Friday from Moscow, where she’s an employee of the University of Idaho.
“It’s an unfortunate bit of slander that a person would suggest my mother had a role in suppressing research,” the daughter added. “There is absolutely no evidence of this since the research in question was submitted to publication. Unfortunately, it was not accepted and returned with a request for revisions.”
An Idaho Fish and Game veterinarian, Dr. Mark Drew, presented the cases to a Canadian wildlife disease conference last August and is now preparing them for submission to a scientific journal.
Marie Bulgin has played a prominent role in the domestic sheep industry, serving as a past president of the Idaho Wool Growers Association.
At the Idaho Legislature this year, and in federal court documents, she testified there’s no evidence bighorns contract diseases from domestic sheep they come into contact with in the wild. This week, she hasn’t returned phone calls from the AP, but said last Friday she knew nothing of conclusions drawn from the 1994 bighorn deaths until a reporter sent her an abstract of the study last week.
Even so, Western Watersheds Project, an environmental group that opposes livestock grazing on public lands in the Rocky Mountains, has called for Bulgin’s ouster, saying she has a conflict of interest and should have known about the research done by her own laboratory.
In recent months, the battle between wildlife advocates and sheep ranchers in Idaho has escalated, as the Payette National Forest considers curtailing its grazing allotments. Idaho bighorn numbers have dwindled by half since 1990, to about 3,500 animals.
The 2009 Idaho Legislature passed a new law aimed at helping keep sheep ranchers in business by, among other things, mandating development of management practices for sheep and bighorns and requiring the Fish and Game director “to certify that the risk of disease transmission between bighorn and domestic sheep is acceptable.”
The UI is now investigating Marie Bulgin’s role in the disease debate, in part to determine if her scientific conclusions may have been compromised by her ties to the domestic sheep industry.
“It’s really too early in the process to determine how long the review may take,” said University of Idaho spokeswoman Tania Thompson. “As we stated, there needs to be a complete understanding of the facts and we are investigating the issue thoroughly.”
The Idaho Wool Growers Association said it was unaware of the 1994 bighorn studies done at the Caine center.
Ken Wixom, the group’s current president, has spoken with Marie Bulgin about the matter and is awaiting more information about why the 1994 sheep disease conclusions weren’t more widely disseminated.
Wixom, who runs about four bands of 3,500 ewes in the southeastern Idaho mountains, said he’s hopeful Indian tribes, wildlife groups, sheep ranchers and state officials can begin working together again soon on resolving their differences.
The Nez Perce Tribe backed out of a collaborative bighorn sheep panel last month, saying the new Idaho law, signed by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, undermines the process.
“We believe that both species can run close together,” Wixom said. “But we believe we can have plenty of bighorns, and also have a viable domestic sheep industry.”
