[Mike]

Disease said to not threaten people
By Gazette News Services

“http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/10/02/news/wyoming/68-
disease.txt”

SHERIDAN – State wildlife officials said an outbreak of hemorrhagic
disease that killed several deer in the Sheridan area probably is
over, and poses no risk to hunters.

Lynn Jahnke, wildlife management coordinator for the Wyoming Game and
Fish Department in Sheridan, didn’t say how many deer were thought to
have been infected, but said the outbreak was “largely over” for the
year.

Hemorrhagic diseases – including epizootic hemorrhagic disease and
blue tongue – cause bleeding in the muscles and organs of infected
animals and are not uncommon among deer in Wyoming, Montana, South
Dakota and Nebraska. The diseases are spread by gnats, typically
where deer concentrate around lowland water sources.

“Conditions were ideal for an outbreak of the disease during early
August,” Jahnke said. “Recent cold temperatures slowed the spread of
the disease as frost killed the ‘no-see-um’ gnats which spread the
disease. Reports of dead deer declined after the first frost in early
September.” Such hemorrhagic diseases do not spread to humans, and
pose no threat to hunters, Jahnke said.