Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD)

[Gorignak]

Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD)

I don't have much on this except the morning news ran a segment on a major local outbreak in white tailed deer, that IS DESCRIBED AS BEING A RESULT OF THE DROUGHT. The drought is far more widespread than here. So, I expect the zone of interest in this should extend across much of the center of the country.

It is debilitating and fatal in deer.....transmitted by fly bites.....and infects cattle.
The cattle infection causes problems, some of them are quite serious, BUT IS NOT USUALLY FATAL in the USA. We have noticed a collapse in the local deer population. We thought that it was just poor forage.

I know nothing ( wife agrees....kids enthusiastically agree), BUT will find the time to look into it. If anyone has a Vet or University connection and could get a post here to bring everyone up to speed on this......much appreciated.

ADDED
Wife Googled and found a few things....An outbreak in Japan infected 39,000 cattle with a MORTALITY rate of 10%. It is an ugly little spud.....spontaneous aborting......choking.....rapid decline and slow recovery....
It appears that the reason it does not get a toehold here as often is due to our increased integration of fly control into management practices......Think the African pics with the flies on everything. It is more prevalent in countries with lower general sanitation and parasite control. Why Japan ? May be a cultural resistance to chemical fly control. I HAVE NO IDEA......NEED TECH SUPPORT HERE....Not just the first three Google returns.

I called some neighbors...The deer population is extremely low, even in the bottoms where they should congregate. I just went out an pulled 2 weeks of game camera videos...2 EMACIATED DOES AND A SINGLE FAWN......PERIOD.

[wanette]

Good info. Thanks

[Olga]

We seem to have a healthy population of deer south of you, Mike. See tons of does, many very large, mostly with twins, some triplets. Lots of bucks with healthy wide racks. The oaks are starting to drop acorns and they are fairly good in size and number. The dang bear and coons were in cahoots and ate all the pears off the tree!

[Gorignak]

Thanks Olga....It looks like you might be experiencing one of the anomalies of this drought....hyper-production by some species of plants and animals.

We canned and froze peaches until we couldn't find room for any more...then the last tree, a white peach, yielded a tremendous crop in mid August. Our crepe myrtles are blooming non stop since June...absolutely beautiful.

BUT......there isn't an acorn to be seen. On the 40 acres we got logged, there was a lot of bare earth to look for tracks..... nothing. I mean nothing at all. We are now seeing the coyote scat under the persimmon trees, but little else. We have no acorns, but the black gums are covered with their small black fruit.

Another inch of rain last night. We are getting a toehold on regrowth. Our effort will be a long slog. I hope that you all are stabilizing and resetting goals. There is no other way to put it....If next year repeats anything like the past 2, there is going to be widespread reduction and contraction. The hay situation is stable here, but unacceptably high in cost. A Texas producer is offering trailer loads of high quality Bahia/Bermuda mix, 4 x 5.5 rounds for $78. delivered to Harrison. That seems the norm, and a better deal than scrub fields baled at the wrong time locally for $60. a bale.

I started a thread....it fizzled, probably because very few people can make the links between the diverse inputs... Hay is going to change. Just as it changed from square bales to round. We are on the threshold of a new reality.

Back to the disease.....ask around about dead deer, and keep us posted on any unusual sick cattle. The flies have been terrible this year, so we are paying close attention to this. A real benefit of the drought was no mosquitoes around here.

Hope you slept in on your day off for the water problem at the Deer School. ;D