Deer — Courtesy: Shutterstock — moosehenderson
Florida wildlife officials are implementing emergency measures in an attempt to stop the spread of a deadly ailment known as “zombie deer disease,” after finding only the second case in the state.
During normal screening, the carcass of a young white-tailed doe that was hit by a car in Holmes County, near the Alabama line, early last month was determined to have the extremely contagious chronic wasting disease (CWD). The only other known case in Florida occurred in June 2023, when a four-year-old doe was killed almost a mile away.
If the neurological disease, which is more common in western and northeastern regions, is not controlled, experts fear that it would have a cascading effect on wildlife management. Although it poses no threat to people, there is no vaccine or treatment for it, and ticks, environmental pollution, and animal-to-animal contact are the main ways that it spreads.
According to wildlife biologist Steven Shea, a deer population specialist who oversees over half a million acres of species habitat in central Florida, “this disease is probably the greatest threat to deer and deer hunting in North America right now.”
According to what we now know, CWD will keep spreading. It has failed every time attempts to contain and exterminate it have been made. Therefore, the main goal of the agencies is to essentially slow down the spread and maintain it within a relatively narrow area.
In Holmes and the nearby counties of Jackson and Washington, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has established a special management zone and a program of increased surveillance and monitoring. Ninety animals are still awaiting test results.
Because an infected deer may go for years without showing any symptoms, the disease is known as a silent killer. According to the University of Florida’s department of wildlife ecology and conservation, it will eventually die from brain tissue destruction and exhibit a variety of symptoms, such as weight loss, strange behavior, loss of coordination, excessive salivation, and finally death.
White-tailed deer are the most popular game species in Florida, with an estimated 700,000 of them living in the state and 100,000 being taken annually.
For the deer hunting season in 2023, FWC established new regulations in the CWD management zone, which included a requirement to inspect every carcass.
James Kelly, the commission’s coordinator for CWD monitoring, said in a statement, “Florida’s early detection puts us in a best-case scenario for CWD management, as a smaller outbreak is more realistic to contain.”
When it comes to controlling this illness, hunters are our first line of defense. Every sample aids in monitoring the disease’s spread and guides our effective management tactics.
Shea expressed his concern that if CWD spread to Florida, it would have a “domino effect.”
“Hunters must submit a head for testing, wait for the meat, and discard the meat if the results are positive,” he stated.
We are therefore concerned that there will be fewer white-tailed deer hunters. In many parts of the country, hunters are the main source of deer population control. If they go, there will still be a lot of deer, but there will be greater effects on crop depredation and automobile strikes.
“One of the biggest sources of funding for fish and wildlife management in North America is hunters, and if fewer hunters hunt, less money will be available for seed programs that benefit all wildlife, not just white-tailed deer.”
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Mike has more than 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations. He once owned his own agency and has worked with some of the largest brands in the world.
