Founded in 1988, QDMA is national nonprofit wildlife conservation organization dedicated to ensuring the future of white-tailed deer, wildlife habit and our hunting heritage. Keen to the devastating effects of hemorrhagic disease (HD) including bluetongue virus over the past few years, QDMA believes this "deer killer" took a summer vacation in 2014. Transmitted by biting gnats, the disease thrives in late summer and early fall during hot, dry years.
"A small number of reports are tickling in from scattered states, but we're not seeing any nationwide trends or large outbreaks this year," said Dr. David Stallknecht of the Southeast Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) at the University of Georgia.
Stallknecht noted that one or two positive cases have come in from a handful of states including Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana and New Jersey, but that the current trend is well below average.
"We won's see a big outbreak at this point," he continued. "I expect to see a few cases to keep trickling in, but we've never had a large outbreak pop up this late in the year. We had an unusually cold winter, and then we had good rains in most regions up until the last part of the summer. I suspect these helped."
Great news for all whitetail addicts, especially on the wake of some serious outbreaks over the past decade with 2007 and 2012 being the worst. In 2012, HD was confirmed in nearly 30 states and killed tens of thousands of deer. See the QDMA's 2014 Whitetail Report for more information about the impacts of the 2012 HD outbreak.
For more information about QDMA, visit www.qdma.com or call (800) 209-3337.
