Wildlife biologists in North Dakota are monitoring the number of white-tailed deer dying in western North Dakota due to a disease called "Epizootic Hemmorhagic Disease, or EHD.
Game and Fish Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Charlie Bahnson said it’s a virus, transmitted to deer via bites from gnats.
"If a white-tail gets bit by enough of the insects, to where they get a sufficient viral does, then they develop really high fevers," Bahnson said. "Their vessels actually start to leak. It's really, truly a hemorrhagic disease, and eventually, the deer dies."
But Bahnson said the disease isn’t always fatal for the white-tails. He said some deer recover, and develop immunity to EHD.
Bahnson said Game and Fish has documented deer deaths due to EHD in Emmons, Grant, Morton, Dunn, Billings, Stark, Hettinger and Adams Counties.
Bahnson said people are not susceptible to EHD.
"That being said, public health officials never recommend consuming a deer that's overtly sick," Bahnson said. "Avoid consuming meat from a deer that died from it. But the risk is pretty mild."
Bahnson said the virus dies out with colder weather.