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Got this in an email today. May not hurt to get your whitetail tested
Wyoming outdoors: Disease toppling deer along rivers
7 hours ago ? BOB KRUMM For The Gazette
The white-tailed deer stood in the Bighorn River drinking the cool water. Had the deer been doing this at dusk, I wouldn't have given the situation another thought. But the time of day was close to 11 a.m. and the deer was oblivious to several drift boats floating by within 50 yards or so.
The doe whitetail drank for about five minutes and then took a couple of unsteady steps and drank for a minute or so more. She appeared to be humped up as though she had been gut shot. As she slowly waded to shore, she wobbled just a bit. It was evident that she was pretty ill.
In the past two weeks I have seen five dead white-tailed deer in the Bighorn River and smelled a couple more. There have been news releases regarding deer dying in the area. One, dated Aug. 14, came from the Wyoming Game & Fish regional office in Cody. There had been reports of white-tailed deer dying in the eastern portions of the Bighorn Basin since mid-July. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks personnel have posted notices of white-tailed deer dying in north-central Montana in the Great Falls area. Some notice was also made about deer dying along the Bighorn and Yellowstone Rivers.
Wyoming and Montana agencies speculate that the deer deaths are probably because of epizootic hemorrhagic disease or bluetongue. Both diseases cause infected deer to go to water. The vector for the disease is a biting gnat - Culcoides variipennis. Other biting gnats and mosquitoes may also transmit EHD. Typically, outbreaks occur in the late summer to early fall and end when the first frost kills the gnats.
By the way, all the information about EHD and bluetongue affirms that humans cannot contract the disease.
The Wyoming news release said ?EHD and bluetongue are different viruses that are spread by biting gnats. EHD and bluetongue primarily affect white-tailed deer but can also infect pronghorn antelope, elk and mule deer. Variants of the diseases can affect species such as bighorn sheep and some domestic animals.?
Symptoms of the diseases include loss of appetite, no fear of humans, excessive salivation, extreme weakness, unwillingness to rise, lameness and bleeding or swelling of the head, neck, or tongue and sore eyes. Some deer will show signs of fever by lying in water to cool down.
?EHD or bluetongue die-offs are a common occurrence in many states. Lack of water sources and rapidly drying ponds tend to concentrate deer in areas where gnat populations are high and accelerate the spread of the diseases,? the news release said.
I can recall an outbreak of EHD in the 1990s in the Sheridan area. It seemed about a third of the white-tailed deer population was killed by EHD.
Last year there was an outbreak in Eastern Montana, western South Dakota and western Nebraska.
The Wyoming Game & Fish and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks urge people who see a dead deer to contact a warden or biologist so that a tissue sample (spleen) can be taken from a relatively recent carcass.
Unfortunately, this hot, dry summer is likely to hang on for a few more weeks. It seems that a hard frost is four to six weeks away, so the biting gnats are going to be around until then. Let's hope that this outbreak doesn't spread very far and that the number of afflicted white-tailed deer remains relatively small.
Wyoming outdoors: Disease toppling deer along rivers
7 hours ago ? BOB KRUMM For The Gazette
The white-tailed deer stood in the Bighorn River drinking the cool water. Had the deer been doing this at dusk, I wouldn't have given the situation another thought. But the time of day was close to 11 a.m. and the deer was oblivious to several drift boats floating by within 50 yards or so.
The doe whitetail drank for about five minutes and then took a couple of unsteady steps and drank for a minute or so more. She appeared to be humped up as though she had been gut shot. As she slowly waded to shore, she wobbled just a bit. It was evident that she was pretty ill.
In the past two weeks I have seen five dead white-tailed deer in the Bighorn River and smelled a couple more. There have been news releases regarding deer dying in the area. One, dated Aug. 14, came from the Wyoming Game & Fish regional office in Cody. There had been reports of white-tailed deer dying in the eastern portions of the Bighorn Basin since mid-July. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks personnel have posted notices of white-tailed deer dying in north-central Montana in the Great Falls area. Some notice was also made about deer dying along the Bighorn and Yellowstone Rivers.
Wyoming and Montana agencies speculate that the deer deaths are probably because of epizootic hemorrhagic disease or bluetongue. Both diseases cause infected deer to go to water. The vector for the disease is a biting gnat - Culcoides variipennis. Other biting gnats and mosquitoes may also transmit EHD. Typically, outbreaks occur in the late summer to early fall and end when the first frost kills the gnats.
By the way, all the information about EHD and bluetongue affirms that humans cannot contract the disease.
The Wyoming news release said ?EHD and bluetongue are different viruses that are spread by biting gnats. EHD and bluetongue primarily affect white-tailed deer but can also infect pronghorn antelope, elk and mule deer. Variants of the diseases can affect species such as bighorn sheep and some domestic animals.?
Symptoms of the diseases include loss of appetite, no fear of humans, excessive salivation, extreme weakness, unwillingness to rise, lameness and bleeding or swelling of the head, neck, or tongue and sore eyes. Some deer will show signs of fever by lying in water to cool down.
?EHD or bluetongue die-offs are a common occurrence in many states. Lack of water sources and rapidly drying ponds tend to concentrate deer in areas where gnat populations are high and accelerate the spread of the diseases,? the news release said.
I can recall an outbreak of EHD in the 1990s in the Sheridan area. It seemed about a third of the white-tailed deer population was killed by EHD.
Last year there was an outbreak in Eastern Montana, western South Dakota and western Nebraska.
The Wyoming Game & Fish and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks urge people who see a dead deer to contact a warden or biologist so that a tissue sample (spleen) can be taken from a relatively recent carcass.
Unfortunately, this hot, dry summer is likely to hang on for a few more weeks. It seems that a hard frost is four to six weeks away, so the biting gnats are going to be around until then. Let's hope that this outbreak doesn't spread very far and that the number of afflicted white-tailed deer remains relatively small.
