The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is worried about the possibility that the deadly insect-borne epizootic hemorrhagic disease will infect deer populations in the state.
No confirmed cases of the disease have been recorded in the state’s history, but outbreaks are being reported in New York’s Hudson Valley, including some counties that border Vermont.
Because of the possible spread, the fish and wildlife department is on alert for signs of cases, especially in the Castleton area, where there have been recent reports of several dead deer. Biologists do not know if those deer were infected because they could not look at samples before they decomposed, according to department officials.
To confirm cases, the biologists need fresh samples, so at this point, the department is responding to any reports of dead or sick deer that it gets, said Nick Fortin, wildlife biologist and deer project leader at the department’s Rutland office.
“A lot of times we get a call from someone who found a dead deer in their backyard or whatever, and they’ll let us know, but by the time we’re able to get there it’s already too decomposed to test,” Fortin said in a phone interview.
If deer die unexpectedly, Fortin said biologists can suspect the cause was epizootic hemorrhagic disease, but there is no way to be certain without a fresh sample.
The disease is transmitted only through biting midges, annoying tiny insects that are also called no-see-ums or gnats and are smaller than mosquitoes or flies. The disease cannot pass from deer to deer or from a deer to any other animals. Humans cannot contract it from deer or midges.
While the disease is common in southern states, where some deer have developed immunity, outbreaks in the Northeast are sporadic, so most infected deer die quickly.
If deer in Vermont are found to be carrying it then not much can be done to mitigate the spread, Fortin said. There is no treatment for epizootic hemorrhagic disease and no way to prevent the spread, Fish & Wildlife officials said.
Epizootic hemorrhagic disease is the most common infectious disease among white-tailed deer in the eastern United States, according to the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. While an outbreak might temporarily shrink the regional deer population, according to a fish and wildlife department press release, it would not have a long-term effect on the population.
If there was a big enough outbreak to threaten deer populations, Fortin said, the state would put a hold on hunting permits.
“The most likely place where this would show up would be in southwestern Vermont, like Rutland and Bennington counties,” Fortin said. “We are actually struggling to reduce deer populations there, so I don’t want to say it would help, but we probably won’t see enough impact where we would have to cut back on hunting.”
Outbreaks are most common in late summer and early fall when midges proliferate. Then they are killed by the first hard frost, according to the release.
Symptoms usually start showing around seven days after a deer is infected, according to the Cornell lab. These include loss of appetite, loss of fear of humans, weakness, fever, edema, and swollen head, neck, tongue or eyelids. After symptoms start showing, deer die within eight to 36 hours. Infected deer tend to die near a water source, and multiple deer may be found together.
The disease is diagnosed by a combination of clinical signs and testing for the virus on tissue and blood.
Anyone who finds a dead or sick-looking deer can contact the local office of the Vermont State Police, which will report it to Vermont Fish & Wildlife.
