Blue Tongue Disease in White Tail Deer

[painter]

Here in Marshall Co WV our White Tail deer has been hit with Blue Tongue disease once again a significant amount of the herd has been lost.

 

[ND shooter]

Here too. SW North Dakota. I have found a bunch of dead ones on my property. Blue tongue or EHD.

 

[338 Mollett]

Sorry to hear this used to be a passionate bow hunter and this always broke my heart !

 

[Majday]

Far eastern wa whitman county has been hit by it probably 3-4x the last 6-7 years. Absolutely decimated the whitetails. Muleys used to be mainly down by breaks of river and eastern part of county. now they're nearly everywhere with a few whitetail scattered in

 

[Majday]

But our great game dept STILL has given out doe permits.... go figure

 

[Doug Casner]

I remember when I looked forward to this time of year all year. Between cwd and blue tongue, It pretty well ruined it. We still have deer but Im getting afraid to eat one. Doug

 

[Lonny in ID]

But our great game dept STILL has given out doe permits.... go figure

We got hit hard in 2021. Probably took out 90% plus of the whitetails in certain areas. It took the IDFG a couple years to even change extra doe permits and shorten extremely long seasons. They said in 5 years the WT herd would be back to full numbers. Not even close yet. Maybe in 10 years, if no other outbreaks happen will we see any number of WT's again in the hard hit areas.

 

[searcher]

I recall the big freeze in Utah back in the 80's. It wiped out a crazy number of deer and took many years to come back - if it ever did, compared to those good old days.

 

[pikespeakgoat]

The area where we hunt in Nebraska lost quite a large percentage to EHD in 2014 or so. So many in fact, that numbers are still nowhere they were prior to the outbreak.

 

[Idaho-45]

Just like Lonny said, It has hit here in N. Central Idaho several times in the past few years big time. I live in a rural area, & would normally see plenty of deer, night, or day. Populations have definitely diminished. The only good thing, not as many dart out in front of me going to, or from work, in the dark.......

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Predators become a large factor in population recovery as fawn production/survival is the only way to grow the population. If you are near or in an EHD/Bluetongue outbreak, you may encounter deer with broken or damaged hoofs. Deer with hoof problems had the chronic form of the virus and are recovering, the antibodies are temporary so the deer can contract the virus again via insect bite. The virus is not human or dog/cat contagious.

 

[chop house]

we are hunting this buck hard. bow season here and forgoing early meat to get this one on the ground, in, and tested. not the only underweight deer on camera, unfortunately...

 

[Gary in MD]

It’s hitting parts here in MD also, a friend of mine a few miles up the road is finding them dead on his property.

 

[JayHHI6818]

Here in Marshall Co WV our White Tail deer has been hit with Blue Tongue disease once again a significant amount of the herd has been lost.

We use to own 96 acres in Marshall co so I sent this to my cousin. He replied


Talked to Brad last night. He has a couple ponds and said there are a couple dead ones every few days. Sees some in the creek when goes out to Dry Ridge