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EHD outbreak in Ohio?

themedic

Junior Member
755
0
OHIO
A friend of mine has found 30 dead deer near Rockbridge, Ohio. I have not seen any of it in my area. Curious if anyone else has had any issues. ODNR took a deer for testing. ODNR only has confirmed one outbreak in Washington county for 2103.

Here is his story and some pic's:

A Your Trophy Pursuit

As told by: Andy Nunley

This is my story of a devastating apparent EHD outbreak in Laurel Twp, Hocking County, Ohio. During the first week of September, my friend Joe and I stumbled upon a dead doe. The deer was laying in a creek just under a large rock cliff. It didn’t really mean much to us then, as it’s not abnormal to find a deer on this property that ran off of the cliffs and plunged to it’s death.

Then a day or two later my buddy Joe (who owns a farm across the road) saw a flock of vultures. The vultures were about 200 yards from the dead doe under the rock cliff. After some investigation, deer number 2 was found. This deer was in some brush about 30 yards from the same creek as the first dead doe. Joe called me and told me he found another dead deer. We were still not too alarmed. Right away, I went out on my 4-wheeler to check it out. I cruised over to check out deer number 2 and all around our farms and found number 3, a small yearling buck. It was just 50 yards from the second deer and laying right on a creek bank. Now things are starting to get weird. We were wondering, “What’s going on?”

Our first thought, due to how close the dead deer were in relation to one another, was that some one poisoned them. We were now very mad! The next morning, I was leaving to take my kids to school and right on the side of road, laying in the ditch, was a dead year, a half old buck still in full velvet. This was just a few hundred yards from the others. This was now deer number 4 and that’s when EHD started to creep into our minds. From there it just kept getting worse. Over the next few weeks we did nothing but walk and look for other dead deer. We would look for flocks of vultures, then go look in those areas and walk all waterways and drainages. We also talked to several neighbors and spread the word. Most had not seen anything but most are not in the woods like we are this time of year. The story was told to anyone who would listen and I guess the word spread.

A month or so after finding the first deer and sharing our stories with anyone and anyone who would listen, Joe received a call from ODNR wildlife biologist Mike Tonkovich. Apparently a friend of Joe’s knows Tonkovich and relayed our story to him. Tonkavich asked some questions and informed Joe that there was only one confirmed case of EHD in Ohio this year. This confirmed case was in Washington County, a very long way from our farm. Tonkovich also said that if we found a live sick deer to call him and he would do his best to send someone out to harvest it, so it could be tested. Well, as luck would have it, a neighbor who Joe had talked to a few weeks before, called him the very next day. The neighbor said they had a deer in their yard that was acting weird, leaning on trees and showing no real fear of them. Joe and I were on our way!

We got there and the deer, a small spike buck, was in a swampy thicket. It would let us get a few yards from it, then it would get up run just a few yards, then bed down again. This was last Friday, October 4th at about 2pm. Joe called Tonkovich, who sent two ODNR guys out immediately. They shot the deer and took it in to be tested. To add insult to injury, while walking in the thicket to retrieve that deer, another dead deer was found! As of today, Oct. 12th we are waiting for a call from Tonkavich with the results. The total count is right at 30. All of the deer were either in water very close to it. The most recent find was last night, and it was a fresh one. We were starting to think it was slowing down so this find really concerns us!

For anyone reading this story, the thirty dead deer were all found on about 220 acres. I’m sure there is many more on the land we have searched, as the bugs and vultures have them picked clean in less than a week and many on property we don’t have access too. I’m anxiously awaiting the results but in my opinion it all points to EHD. We are hoping for an early frost to kill the mites and end this devastating loss. It will probably take years for our farms to recovery. I would not wish this on anyone!
 

bigten05

*Supporting Member*
3,675
151
knox county ohio
I know the guy this has happened to. Its a shame. Lost some good deer and a lot of work that he's put in on his place. Hope they figure it out. But we didn't really have a drought for ehd. At least not where I live anyways.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
Man that sucks. It happened on a 900 acre lease I once belonged to back in early 2008 and it still hasn't fully recovered. If your surrounding hunters continue to shoot deer like they always have your area will not recover with the current regulations that are in place. They will either maintain the lower population or continue to reduce it.
 

Rutin

Senior Member
2,029
0
Ina Duck Blind
A guy put a video on facebook last night of a deer in SE Ohio that he walked right up to yesterday, solid high 40's low 50's 10 pt that was a suspect for EHD. He called the GW to come dispatch it bc he was filming it from his phone at 10-15 feet as the deer just walked circles around him a a cut corn field. Awesome video from a phone but a sad story with a great buck going to waste. Obviously blind in both eyes, and staggering like a drunk all over the place. Had he been allowed to harvest it with his bow I'm sure he would have but with the DOE ONLY rule in affect he had to rely on the GW to dispatch him.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
We get hit hard here in Washington Count for whatever reason. In 2007 it devastated some farms not far from me and it hit again last summer. I'd love for it to become a thing of the past!