Illinois: Virus Previously Unknown To Area Kills Hundreds Of Deer Around Chicago

Associated Press – “CHICAGO — Hundreds of deer in the Chicago area have been killed by a virus previously unknown in the area.

The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports ( http://bit.ly/QbiCIM) that roughly 200 deer in Cook County have died. Six suspected cases have been reported in Kane County.

The disease is known as EHD, or epizootic hemorrhagic disease. It’s a virus that kills deer in about a week and is spread among them by bites from flies known as midges.

The disease cannot be passed to humans or pets.

Cook County Forest Preserve District wildlife biologist Chris Anchor says the virus is typically found in other parts of the Midwest and in the Northeast.

He suspects the mild winter and hot summer helped it spread to northern Illinois. The first case was two weeks ago.” Source – The Sacramento Bee.

Flashback: Virus Killing Hundreds Of Deer In Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas … – “Hundreds of deer in eight Michigan counties have died from a viral disease that is on the rise nationwide because of hot, dry weather, state officials said Thursday… ‘We are seeing a large die-off of deer in local areas. To date we have over 900 reports of dead deer across all (eight) counties,’ stated Tom Cooley, DNR wildlife biologist and pathologist.” Read more.