Deer suffering from drought
By JOANNE PERSINGER
The hot, dry summer appears to be taking a toll on the white-tailed deer population, albeit indirectly.
Wildlife specialists say drought conditions help provide “excellent reproductive conditions” for biting midges, small flying insects that transmit a viral disease, epizootic hemorrhagic disease.
The official count of dead deer at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge was at five as of Friday evening, said Marc Webber, refuge manager, but the cause had not yet been confirmed.
Webber said Nate Yazell, district biologist, was collecting samples to be examined by a wildlife health laboratory to find the exact cause.
Webber also said symptoms of diseased deer included disorientation, a tendency to move toward water, lethargy and unresponsiveness.
“If they see you, they don’t seem to care,” he said.
He advised that people should not approach deer showing such symptoms, not because of the disease, but because of the unpredictable behavior of disoriented animals.
EHD is not normally found in domestic animals, and is not transmissible to humans, a Department of Natural Resources press release stated.
It is a “very virulent virus that basically causes real high fever in these deer and they’re trying to cool off,” moving toward water, Gary Langell, private lands program coordinator for the Bloomington field office of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, said.
Langell also said some EHD shows up most years somewhere in the state, and “it’s focused right now in southern Indiana.”
The DNR said hunters and landowners have been reporting finding an unusual number of dead deer in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Jackson, Jefferson, Perry, Pike, Spencer, Warrick and Washington counties.
EHD has been confirmed as the cause of some of the deaths. Many of the reported dead deer were found near water.
DNR deer biologists say they do not expect the outbreak will cause “significant deer mortality” in areas where the disease hit last fall because of residual immunity. However, the early onset of this year’s outbreak and prime reproductive conditions for the midges may lead to a significant number of deaths in southern Indiana this fall.
“It’s likely that a good number of deer have been and will be lost,” DNR Deer Management Biologist Jim Mitchell said in a press release.
Infected animals have also been reported this month in Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Indiana deer hunters are asked to observe deer they intend to take for a brief time. If the deer’s posture or behavior indicates the deer may be sick, hunters are advised not to do so. Hunters also are advised never to kill or eat a sick deer, to use rubber gloves and to be sure meat is cooked thoroughly to kill any bacteria.
EHD should not be confused with the unrelated brain disease, chronic wasting disease, which has never been found in Indiana.
EHD usually affects local deer populations until a few hard freezes kill the biting midges that spread the disease.
How to report”
Hoosiers can report sick deer to their local district wildlife biologist, conservation officer or the Board of Animal Health. Contact information is listed in the Indiana Hunting and Trapping Guide and at:
www.IN.gov/dnr/fishwild/huntguide1/wbiolo.htm More EHD information:
www.in.gov/dnr/deerhealth/EHD_Fact_Sheet.pdf