QUOTED FROM A NEWSPAPER LAST YEAR (2007)

EHD killing deer across Virginia, Southeastern states
Published 09/19/2007 By Kevin Castle










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Virginia game officials this week said a virus is killing large numbers of deer in the commonwealth.
James Moffitt had already figured that out.
Moffitt, a Scott County resident and lifelong hunter, says he’s seen alarming numbers of dead deer in Scott County, mostly around water sources.
“I personally found 41 dead deer,” Moffitt said Wednesday. “Ninety-nine percent have been around water. They’re just everywhere.”
Moffitt is concerned about the prospects for the upcoming bow season, which starts in Virginia Oct. 1.
“There’s no use to hunt over here. They’re still dying,’’ he said.
Moffitt said he’ll still hunt this bow season, “but I’ll go away from here.”
Allen Boynton, a Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologist, said blood samples collected from a dead deer in the Hiltons area of Scott County confirmed the presence of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD). The blood samples were tested at a wildlife disease study unit in Georgia.
“This is occurring among deer all across Virginia and in several Southeastern states,” Boynton said. “Several counties in our part of Virginia are reporting finding up to 40 and 50 deer lying dead near water.”
Boynton says gnats or biting midges — the bugs responsible for biting the deer and passing on the virus — breed in muddy places.
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