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Hunters are keeping tabs on bucks more intently than ever before with the current craze in trail cameras. They see bucks via images that they've never laid eyes on keeping hopes high to eventually tag a monster right in their backyard. Unfortunately, some of those bucks may come up missing. Vehicle collisions, natural accidents, predation and disease are the main culprits for bucks to go missing. One major reason for a buck to pull the disappearing act is about to raise its ugly head.

Referred to by wildlife biologists as HD or Hemorrhagic disease, it also goes by the name of blue tongue. This disease, although studied in depth, attacks with lightning speed and intensity, yet has no cure. Hemorrhagic disease is the most highly visible viral disease affecting whitetails.

Nearly every year some portion of the whitetail range is hit hard. The only exception is the extreme northeast and northwest corners of the whitetail range, otherwise HD affects deer from Texas to Montana and from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. 

Spread by a tiny two-winged midge, HD can kill an infected animal within days, if not sooner. Affected animals are inflicted with a high fever and hemorrhage internally. They generally seek water for relief and this is the reason many carcasses are discovered near reservoirs, creeks and rivers.  HD kicks off in the late summer and peaks in September. A killing frost knocks back the midge population and halts the spread, but it still leaves you scratching your head as to where all the deer went. If your area is going to be affected this year, signs could begin showing up soon. If you smell a dead animal near a water source there's a high probability it is an HD affected whitetail. 

HD can nearly wipe out a herd during a major outbreak. According to information from the University of Georgia and the University of California, estimates of mortality exceeding 90 percent may occur. I've seen firsthand localized mortality of HD of 50 percent or more in South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana. In fact, more than once I've had to cancel or switch hunting locations at the last minute due to HD outbreaks.  

The other big disease to grab headlines is Chronic Wasting disease, but is it really something to fear? At this stage the infection rate is small, less than five percent in most areas. According to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance, CWD is described as "a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids." Its infectious agents are hypothesized to be prions, which are infectious proteins without associated nucleic acids. The most infectious areas of a deer or other ungulate, is the brain and spinal cord, hence it is advised to always wear latex gloves when field dressing a deer or elk. 

Infectious models indicate that CWD could spread through deer populations over the next several decades with disastrous results. Regardless, so much is unknown about this disease that it is tough to predict anything with accuracy. For now, your best bet is to keep your herd density at a manageable level and work hard at keeping deer spread out and not congregated in one location since the disease is believed to be spread through deer interaction. 

What's worse, HD or CWD? My hunting has always been affected by HD, but rarely CWD, if ever. That may change in the future, but when a buck comes up missing in my backyard I'm betting on HD as the culprit.or the front bumper of a Dodge truck. 

Comments (3)

from SeabeePete wrote 10 weeks 1 day ago

Huh! Seems like they find more and more things like this. Amazing how such a small vector can cause such loss and do it so efficiently. Interesting how they head to water and how that it is a calling card of the disease process. Great article!

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from VAHunter100 wrote 9 weeks 6 days ago

Two years ago we experienced a very dry summer in Virginia. Prior to the opening of bow season, some good bucks that some neighbors and myself had been keeping a tab on went missing. I found one heavy-horned 8 heavily deposed 15 yards off a creek, but it was nothing compared to the buck the neighbor found down the road. A massive 12 point buck with a 24" spread. Our general consensus is that the 'hoof disease' is what eventually took the life of these two very deer. The hoof disease sounds very much like HD in that they head towards water. We call it the hoof disease because the hooves split in half, and it becomes difficult for the deer to move and thus starvation. Seems that larger bucks suffer from this a little more than the average deer.

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from 86Ram wrote 8 weeks 6 days ago

These diseases are pretty nasty and quite devastating to herds. Some of them like bovine TB which can be spread from cattle to elk, deer and i think sheep is bad business too.
It's another reason to manage herd sizes and observe deer in your AO.
The last thing you want is for this stuff to mutate and jump to other animals. What a nightmare that'd be.

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from SeabeePete wrote 10 weeks 1 day ago

Huh! Seems like they find more and more things like this. Amazing how such a small vector can cause such loss and do it so efficiently. Interesting how they head to water and how that it is a calling card of the disease process. Great article!

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from VAHunter100 wrote 9 weeks 6 days ago

Two years ago we experienced a very dry summer in Virginia. Prior to the opening of bow season, some good bucks that some neighbors and myself had been keeping a tab on went missing. I found one heavy-horned 8 heavily deposed 15 yards off a creek, but it was nothing compared to the buck the neighbor found down the road. A massive 12 point buck with a 24" spread. Our general consensus is that the 'hoof disease' is what eventually took the life of these two very deer. The hoof disease sounds very much like HD in that they head towards water. We call it the hoof disease because the hooves split in half, and it becomes difficult for the deer to move and thus starvation. Seems that larger bucks suffer from this a little more than the average deer.

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from 86Ram wrote 8 weeks 6 days ago

These diseases are pretty nasty and quite devastating to herds. Some of them like bovine TB which can be spread from cattle to elk, deer and i think sheep is bad business too.
It's another reason to manage herd sizes and observe deer in your AO.
The last thing you want is for this stuff to mutate and jump to other animals. What a nightmare that'd be.

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Post a Comment (200 characters or less)

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.