Few events in the outdoors are a nauseating as an EHD outbreak. When you walk along a winding stream bed or approach a shallow, remote pond and find carcass after deer carcass, your heart sinks deeply into your stomach.
Two years ago, a friend knew the hangout of a big South Dakota whitetail, so we headed toward that spot just as day was breaking. Sadly, we soon found it — or what remained after the coyotes had their way.
Throughout that week, we found numerous other deer remains near water, a clear indication of EHD or bluetongue virus. Fortunately, Game & Fish was on board as well and reduced the number of deer tags offered in 2013 and 2014.
Thanks to abundant moisture, death from disease seems to be down. Here’s the good news in this QDMA post.
Hemorrhagic disease (HD), including EHD and bluetongue virus, seems to have taken a summer vacation in 2014, and the danger of a serious outbreak this year has now passed. Transmitted by biting gnats, the virus usually hits deer hardest in late summer and early fall, especially in unusually hot, dry years.
“A small number of reports are trickling in from scattered states, but we’re not seeing any nationwide trends or large outbreaks this year,” said Dr. David Stallknecht with the Southeast Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) at the University of Georgia. “This year is definitely below average so far.”
David said one or two positive cases had come in from each of a handful of states scattered in the South and North, including Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, and New Jersey.
“We won’t see a big outbreak at this point. I expect a few cases to keep trickling in, but we’ve never had a large outbreak pop up this late in the year,” he said.
