Title: Surveillance for hemorrhagic disease in white-tailed deer in the Southeast: 1980-present.
Year: 1984
Abstract: In 1980, the Southeastern cooperative Wildlife Disease Study initiated a mail survey of state and federal wildlife agencies in the Southeast to monitor the occurrence of hemorrhagic disease (HD), i.e., epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), and/or bluetongue (BT). The survey was expanded in 1982 to include all states with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virninianud. The 4 criteria used in the questionnaire are: (1) unexplained high deer mortality during late summer/early fall; (2) necropsy diagnosis of HD by trained personnel; (3) isolation of either BT or EHD virus from deer; and (4) observation of sloughing hooves, oral ulcers, or scars on the rumen mucosa of hunter-killed deer. HD activity in 1980 was centered in a broad zone of the coastal plain and piedmont from Georgia to Virginia and was characterized by numerous small to medium scale dieoffs in late summer (63% of reports). In 1981, most HD reports (75%) were based only on the occurrence of sloughing hooves in hunter-killed deer in late fall/winter, and HD activity was centered in Arkansas. In 1982, most reports (65%) again were based on sloughing hooves, and HD activity was most common in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. To date, this annual survey has shown that exposure of white-tailed deer to HD is widespread and many exposed deer have non-fatal infections. Preliminary results of the 1983 survey will be presented.
