MEADVILLE — Testing of deer found dead in Crawford County has confirmed that the deaths resulted from epizootic hemorrhagic disease, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said.
“Although the Game Commission is aware that this event may be alarming to the residents and hunters in the affected area,” the statement said in part, “the population in the affected area has proved resilient in the past and will rebound quickly.”
The deer affected have been in and near State Game Lands 214, east of Hartstown, according to the commission.
“Our food and cover crews have recovered racks from multiple bucks in the Pymatuning area that have succumbed to the disease,” said Jason Amory, information and education supervisor.
Hemorrhagic disease causes fever and bleeding from internal organs. Deer acquire the disease from midge bites, and typically develop symptoms two to seven days after being bitten, often dying within 36 hours of the onset of symptoms, according to the commission.
Dan Bickel, superintendent of Pymatuning State Park, was aware of the outbreak, but said visitors to the state park aren’t likely to encounter the deer carcasses that have been evident just 5 miles east of the park.
“That area was hit worse,” Bickel said of the game lands and the wetlands stretching north to the Pymatuning Reservoir propagation area. “We haven’t noted any deer in the park itself.”
Hemorrhagic disease outbreaks tend to be localized, Amory said. The midges, or tiny flies, that cause the disease often proliferate around bodies of water that have receded due to periods of drought.
Infected deer often seek water in response to the fever caused by the disease, Amory added, and as a result, it’s common to find them by streams or ponds.
“The Game Commission wants to inform the public that many deer have succumbed to the disease in a small area, but the disease does not have far-reaching effects for the overall deer population,” the game commission said in a statement.
The first hard frost should end the outbreak, the commission predicted.
A previous outbreak of the disease in the same area occurred in 2012.
The game commission emphasized that hemorrhagic disease, which is not transmitted from one deer to another and is not always fatal, should not be confused with chronic wasting disease, which is likely spread through bodily fluids and is always fatal to deer. Chronic wasting disease has not been detected in the area, according to the commission.