Tagged: Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease

Some Michigan hunters are just learning today that they won’t be able to bag as many deer this year as they have in the past.

Firearms deer season begins tomorrow.  The day before the start of firearms deer season is usually the busiest day at retailers who sell hunting licenses.

Hunters in much of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula will have a cap on the number of deer they can take home this season. A disease that’s killing thousands of deer has prompted the state to enforce new hunting restrictions.

Last winter was unusually warm and that’s helped create fertile breeding ground for the biting fly that spreads Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease. It has infected deer in a record 30 Michigan counties; killing at least 13,000 deer this year. EHD does not affect humans.

Brent Rudolph runs the deer and elk program at the Department of Natural Resources.

Thousands of deer have died in Michigan due to a virus in the last few months.

State wildlife officials hope to hear from deer hunters this week as they try to track the disease.

This past weekend, thousands of Michigan deer hunters took to the woods.  A few were legally allowed to hunt deer, but most of them just to track deer they will try to bag when bow season starts next month.

Update 2:00 p.m. Aug. 30

State wildlife officials say more deer have died across the state, reaching almost 2,000 casualties, reports the Associated Press.

More from the AP:

More than 1,700 white-tailed deer have been killed this summer by a disease affecting several counties in the southern half of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources say the outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, has been worst in Ionia County, where more than 1,100 deer have died.

DNR officials say 225 deer have been killed in Branch County, followed by 153 in Clinton County and 101 in Calhoun County.

12:20 p.m. Aug. 16

The AP reports that the disease has turned up in eight Michigan counties and killed hundreds of deer.

More from the AP:

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said Thursday that deer infected with epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, have been found in Barry, Calhoun, Cass, Clinton, Eaton and Montcalm counties. Experts previously confirmed the disease had killed deer in Ionia and Branch counties.

EHD outbreaks have happened in isolated sections of Michigan repeatedly since 2006. The number of cases is rising nationwide because of hot, dry weather.

Wildlife biologist Tom Cooley says there are reports of more than 900 dead deer across the eight counties. But he said the die-off probably will be confined to local areas and won't affect the wider deer population.

2:30 p.m. August 5, 2012

State wildlife officials are trying to get a handle on the scope of a disease outbreak that's killing deer in large numbers in southern Michigan.