Florida will continue to monitor a deer disease even after no detection this year

Share
deer
White-tailed deer. By Ralph Navarro via iStock for WMNF News.

©2024 The News Service of Florida

Wildlife officials have not found any other deer infected with fatal chronic wasting disease after one tested positive last year in Northwest Florida.

But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will continue beefed up monitoring efforts because samples were not submitted for many deer killed by hunters in Holmes County, where the infected deer was found in June.

Cory Morea, coordinator of the commission’s Deer Management Program, said Thursday night that no new cases of the contagious disease have been detected from more than 1,300 samples taken statewide since June.

“It suggests that we have detected the disease early, which is an ideal situation,” Morea said during a presentation at the Bonifay K-8 School in Bonifay.

But Morea acknowledged that more testing is needed to keep the disease from getting a foothold in Florida.

The disease is described as similar to mad cow disease and is in 33 states and five Canadian provinces.

“We need greater stakeholder and public support in our sampling and surveillance efforts,” Morea said.

Among changes to get more hunters to bring in killed deer for testing, officials will allow baiting and feeding to lure deer in season within an area north of Interstate 10 in Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties.

Morea said using bait should minimize the risk of deer congregating for long periods, reducing the chance for the disease to spread, and “hopefully increase the harvest.”

Chronic wasting disease isn’t considered harmful to people.

But people are advised against eating deer that test positive.

For deer, the disease can result in death within four months.

Deer with the disease become emaciated and are often found isolated and trembling.

With no simple treatment or vaccine for the disease, deer farmers have expressed concern that a single positive test could require the eradication of entire herds, which in some cases represent millions of dollars in investments.

Florida has monitored the issue since 2002.

The state in 2021 placed certain limits on importing deer carcasses into Florida.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Emo Night Tampa Radio
Player position: