Disease killing deer in western ND

[TylerS]

Just saw this. I thought blue tongue was bad. One more thing to worry about...

Story link

And the story for those who can't get the link to work:

Disease killing white-tailed deer in western North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota wildlife officials say a disease that kills white-tailed deer appears to be present in a large part of western North Dakota.

Game and Fish Wildlife Chief Randy Kreil says the department received isolated reports of deer deaths from the disease known as EHD in August, and reports have continued to come in. He says more than 13,000 white-tailed deer hunting license holders are eligible for refunds, and Game and Fish is suspending the sale of remaining licenses in some hunting units on Friday.

EHD is spread by midges. It is almost always fatal to white-tailed deer but not to mule deer. It is not known to affect people.

North Dakota had not had significant deer deaths from the disease since 2005.

[Bear55]

Never heard of EHD before, it must be bad if they are refunding and suspending license sales in those areas.

[slimngrizzly]

I cant believe their blaming midgets for the spread of this horrible disease!

[Musky Buck]

I can't wait to see the flood of animal rightists showing up to help support the ND cause financially and emotionally. Then throughout the winter I can't wait to read their report about all the good they do now that they have a focus to focus on. The ND deer are in good hands now. Truth be told makes you wonder if someday we may have a major mess to deal with, hoping not, hoping winter can toughen em up and eradicate these icky things.

[TylerS]

I cant believe their blaming midgets for the spread of this horrible disease!

I guess I've never heard of EHD before...how have you heard it is spread?

[slimngrizzly]

That was my attempt at being funny tyler Sorry.

[kingr]

I'm just impressed with their response to this terrible outbreak. They are taking field reports and using common sense and making decisions based on "nature" facts and not bureaucracy & money. 13,000 licenses at $20 is a potential loss of $260,000. Will this happen no, but could you imagine the MN DNR doing this in any situation?

I have a doe tag for 3B. After being out there a couple weekends bow hunting and reports from my hunting partner who lives south of Dickinson I'm not sure if I'm going to make the trip out after hunting with my dad the first 9 days in MN, but I don't think I'll ask for a refund. Hopefully this epidemic will pass us soon.

[Cheetah]

EHD is spread by bugs called midges, which are like a flea or tick. They die off when the frost comes. It wiped out a huge chunk of the herd on the Milk river in MT this year and many other affected areas in central and eastern MT I have heard. No surprise that it hit western ND too.

[slimngrizzly]

It really isn't that uncommon out in the prarie areas of eastern MT and CO and western ND. It seems like blue tounge or something similar is always popping up out there.... and has been since the mid-80's I think. Its too bad. It would suck to get a good herd going and then have them whiped out again.

[TylerS]

That was my attempt at being funny tyler Sorry.

HA! Sorry I missed that! Sometimes sarcasm is kinda tough to pick up on the interwebs

[TylerS]

While this disease is no doubt devastating to the whitetail herd, I guess I'm not all that worried about it. In fact (and this may rub some people the wrong way) it's probably a GOOD thing. Whitetails are not supposed to be as prevalent as they are in western North Dakota. Maybe nature wiping them out will give the mule deer (which are immune to EHD) and pronghorns a leg-up to retake some of their native range.

[lungdeflator]

Is this related to(spread from) the outbreak along the Milk River, Montana? I cant remember where I saw it so Im afraid to post what I read but I think EHD whiped out a huge number of deer along the Milk River in Montana.