Since late August, wildlife biologists have been monitoring scattered reports of white-tailed deer found dead in a portion of southwestern North Dakota. So far, Game and Fish has received around 20 reports, primarily focused across northern Stark County. EHD was detected in these deer.
Dr. Charlie Bahnson, Game and Fish wildlife veterinarian, says EHD is a viral disease transmitted by biting gnats.
"First and foremost, it leads to really fluid-filled lungs, so that the deer has a really difficult time breathing. They also develop really high fevers in whitetail deer, it's extremely fast acting. Probably in a number of hours you go from a perfectly healthy deer to one that extremely sick."
Doctor Bahnson says it is normally very obvious when a deer is sick, so hunters should report and avoid affected deer. EHD isn’t a danger to humans, but hunters should not shoot or consume a deer that appears sick.
Bahnson says they see a low level of EHD most years and this year’s spike could be due to a number of factors.
"EHD is really strongly associated with drought conditions across the country, so we did have kind of moderate drought in some of those areas to the Southwest part of the state. Another thing is that, following a bad year, deer that survived have pretty meaningful immunity at least for a couple of years, so the population's fairly resistant for a while, but that does wane with time. It's been three to four years since we last had widespread viral activity out there so, our population is getting to be a little more susceptible."
Game and Fish is asking for assistance to better track the extent and severity of this year’s outbreak. The public is encouraged to report any sick or dead deer through an online reporting system.