W.VA, Parkersburg. – Landowners in several counties in West Virginia’s Mid-Ohio Valley have begun a tough discovery over the past few weeks. Mostly in the Parkersburg area, people were finding numerous dead deer in small groups on their property. The massacre was reported by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on the other side of the Ohio River.
West Virginia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Diseases expert Ethan Burton confirmed that the perpetrator has a surgical bleeding disorder or EHD.
“So far, the disease has been confirmed along with Deer, Lumber, Jackson and Pleasantz counties in Richie County. Several samples have also been put on hold in several other areas. The Ohio Natural Resources Division has also confirmed cases on the other side of the river in Washington, Athens and Maigs counties.
This disease is not uncommon and is spread by infected midges. Small insects often referred to as “nose” can infect an entire deer herd quickly. However, the virus is not necessarily a death sentence for animals.
“They are very small chewing flies, essentially bug viruses, causing problems for anti-min animals where whitetail deer is most susceptible to mortality,” Burton explained. “But some deer can withstand infections. It’s a vector-borne disease, and deer have to bite to get it. They need enough viruses to bite.
Finding outbreaks can get in the way. Multiple deer can only be dead yards apart, with damage seen very dramatically. Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce said the city’s crew removed nine dead deer from the city’s yard this week.
The first report began around the beginning of August, when the state’s normal rains were experiencing in the spring, and turned into dryness throughout much of the summer. According to Burton, it is a typical pattern that can lead to occurrence.
“The HD outbreak is a typical condition where August is expected to dry out, following a very wet spring and summer,” Burton said. “If you have a lot of yusudges, the stage is kind of a set.”
The end of the outbreak is certain when the first frost arrives and kills all infected yuds that were spreading the virus.
