New video shows two firefighters braving the ice to reach the deer, as it struggles to escape a frozen Pike Lake in eastern Minnesota on Monday. (Courtesy: City of Prior Lake / LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)
Multiple states across the U.S. are seeing an early-season outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD), a disease fatal to white-tailed deer, according to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Deer sick with EHD may experience drooling and swelling, in addition to more serious symptoms, such as high fever, ulcers inside their body and internal bleeding. These injuries can make walking painful for the deer, so they may try to move by crawling on their knees.
EHD is not uncommon in some areas, with cases often rising in the hot, dry months of late summer and early fall, the DNR said. This is when deer gather at water sources where midges, also known as “no-see-ums,” that carry the disease flourish.
FATAL ‘ZOMBIE DEER’ DISEASE FOUND IN MARYLAND NATIONAL PARKS
FILE – A white-tailed deer looks for food in the woods in the Wyomissing Parklands Thursday afternoon November 19, 2020.
(Ben Hasty / MediaNews Group / Reading Eagle / Getty Images)
This year, however, some states are seeing a rise in EHD cases sooner than expected. In fact, in Michigan, a case of EHD was confirmed back in July.
In Indiana, this early onset of EHD led the DNR to reduce the number of antlerless deer hunting in Wabash County from two to one, according to a local report.
Additionally, EHD outbreaks are being reported more and more in the Northeast and parts of the Upper Midwest, areas where the disease wasn’t as present, according to Bowhunter.
The DNR noted that EHD cannot be transmitted to humans or domestic pets.