Disease triggers deaths in deer

At least 30 deer in Vance County have succumbed to an almost invisible menace over the last couple of months.

The cause of the deaths is hemorrhagic disease, a condition caused by a virus carried by small biting insects such as gnats.

The virus causes a high fever and can lead to death from a cardiac hemorrhage, or fluid in the lungs.

“We’ve had several calls from up there around Kerr Lake,” said Greg Batts, a wildlife biologist with the Division of Wildlife Management of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

In addition to the Vance County deaths, 60 have been reported in Franklin County, 25 in Wake County, about a dozen in Johnston County and one or two in Warren County, he said.

Kerr Lake State Recreation Area Superintendent Bryce Fleming said, “I’ve heard that several dead deer have been found around the lake, but I haven’t seen any. One of our rangers found one near the park office on Saturday.”

“They are most often found near water, because the disease causes a high fever,” Batts said. “It’s more prevalent in swampy, wet areas that are good breeding ground for gnats.”

The disease is not transmitted by physical contact between deer or by a healthy deer licking a salt lick used earlier by an infected deer, he said.

The number of cases reported this year is not unusual.

“It’s not a catastrophic event. It’s what we call a normal outbreak,” Batts said.

According to information released by the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Georgia, less than 25 percent of the deer population ordinarily dies during an outbreak of the disease.

Hemorrhagic disease has a long history of affecting deer populations in the Southeast, the Mississippi Valley, the Rocky Mountains and several areas in the far west.

Batts said outbreaks tend to occur in a cyclical manner.

“There’s not 100 percent mortality for deer. If they survive, they have been inoculated. That’s why it’s cyclical,” he said. “The older deer die off and we have young deer that haven’t developed immunization to the disease.”

The result is a spike in the number of cases every three to five years.

“The virus does not affect humans and it does not affect your animals,” Batts said.

It can’t be transmitted by touching a dead deer or by a hunting dog coming across a deer carcass.

Batts said the loss of deer to the disease does not affect the deer-hunting season, which has already opened for bow-and-arrow hunters. The season for rifle hunters will open on Oct. 18.

Individuals who come across a dead deer with no outward signs of an injury are asked to report it to the Wildlife Division by calling (919) 707-0050.

Source:   http://www.hendersondispatch.com/news/local/x532295174/Disease-triggers-deaths-in-deer

[This is NOT ebola but proof that there are many haemorragic diseases out there.   Technophobe]