Animal movement and associated infectious disease risk in a metapopulation.

Animal movements among habitat patches or populations are important for maintaining long-term genetic and demographic viability, but connectivity may also facilitate disease spread and persistence. Understanding factors that influence animal movements is critical to understanding potential transmission risk and persistence of communicable disease in spatially structured systems. We evaluated effects of sex, age and infection status at capture on intermountain movements and seasonal movement rates observed in desert bighorn sheep () using global positioning system collar data from 135 individuals (27 males, 108 females) in 14 populations between 2013 and 2018, following a pneumonia outbreak linked to the pathogen in the Mojave Desert, California, USA.

Previously Unrecognized Exposure of Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) to Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae in the California Mojave Desert.

A 2013 outbreak of respiratory disease in bighorn sheep from California's Mojave Desert metapopulation caused high mortality in at least one population. Subsequent PCR and strain-typing indicate widespread infection of a single strain of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae throughout this region. Serosurvey of archived samples showed that some populations have had antibodies to M.