disease Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Sometimes Fatal Disease Reported In Deer From 18 W.Va. Counties

Bow hunting season is already underway for deer in West Virginia, and rifle season is fast approaching. But state wildlife management officials say hunters venturing into the woods this fall should keep an eye out for visibly ill deer.

That is because the Mountain State has seen an increase in reports of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD. EHD is transmitted to white-tailed deer through insects like gnats and midges, and can be fatal.

Deer tissue samples taken from eighteen West Virginia counties have tested positive for EHD, according to Ethan Barton, state wildlife disease specialist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR).

This year’s outbreak

Barton said that positive cases of EHD were reported in tissue samples from Barbour, Boone, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mineral, Monongalia, Ohio, Pleasants, Putnam, Ritchie, Taylor, Tyler and Upshur counties.

The WVDNR is also awaiting results on tissue samples from deer from several other counties. EHD prevalence varies widely between the counties, from just a single positive sample to positive reports county wide, Barton said.

EHD is a recurring problem for the state. The disease “has been detected with increasing frequency in West Virginia since the 1990s,” according to the WVDNR website.

“This outbreak was relatively widespread in the state, although we’ve certainly had more widespread outbreaks before that affected the majority of the state’s counties,” Barton said. “This isn’t necessarily anything new. This just happened to be a little bit more active an EHD year than a typical year.”

EHD is not transmissible to humans. While the WVDNR advises against the consumption of meat from visibly ill deer, Barton said deer that have survived and recovered from EHD “are going to be absolutely fine” to hunt and eat.

From the WVDNR’s perspective, EHD cases are “not necessarily anything to be alarmed about,” Barton said, adding that the biggest concern for hunters tends to be the disease’s impact on game populations.

Wintertime frost kills off gnats and midges, which removes the means of transmission for the disease. While EHD infections can still take a toll on local deer populations, that means there is an endpoint within sight.

“Even in areas where local scale deer mortality may be substantial, populations bounce back within relatively short order,” Barton said. “Within two or three years, densities come right back up to where they were before an outbreak. In a typical year with a typical outbreak, most hunters aren’t going to notice an actual difference in the number of deer they see.”

Detecting and reporting disease

EHD typically causes fever, so deer with the disease often seek to cool off in bodies of water, Barton said. Deer tissue samples are primarily collected near local watersheds, because infectious insects and diseased deer alike spend more time in these areas.

Beyond fever, other EHD symptoms include difficulty breathing and swelling of the head, neck and tongue, according to the National Park Service.

Deer that are recovering from EHD or have survived the disease may also exhibit signs of a “depleted immune system,” Barton said. Deer affected by the disease may have hoof lesions, and can struggle to combat later infections of other diseases.

According to Barton, EHD spreads from late July to mid October, but typically reaches its peak in September.

Barton said there is no significant “intervention method” the WVDNR takes once EHD is reported, beyond tracking where the disease occurs and to what scale. There is currently no vaccine or treatment available for the disease.

Meanwhile, fall is deer hunting season in West Virginia. Bow hunting began Sept. 28 and runs until Dec. 31. Buck firearm season runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 8, and muzzleloader season runs from Dec. 16 to Dec. 22.

Barton said reports of EHD can concern hunters, especially when sick or deceased deer are highly visible in a certain area.

But he said the WVDNR encourages hunters to operate within their typical hunting area. Barton added that local deer population declines are typically not severe enough to warrant hunters traveling to other areas instead.

EHD is not the only disease to spread through West Virginia’s deer population this year.

In April, cases of chronic wasting disease among deer were reported in Jefferson County and nearby areas of Maryland for the first time. The disease is different from EHD, but also transmissible and fatal among deer.

Hunters who see deer exhibiting symptoms of EHD or other diseases can also report the sightings to their local WVDNR office. Barton said this helps the organization track the spread of the disease.

“We can kind of walk through it with them, triage out what might be going on, and investigate if need be, to determine if there's a pathogen system or communicable disease involved,” he said.

Barton said that WVDNR might not respond to every sighting because the organization is “limited in numbers.” But he said calling the WVDNR is “generally a good idea” when disease is suspected.

The WVDNR headquarters in South Charleston can be contacted over the phone at (304) 558-6200. For information on how to contact your local WVDNR office, visit the organization’s website.

Deer Test Positive For Chronic Wasting Disease In Harpers Ferry

Two deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the disease’s first documented occurrence in the park.

Two white-tailed deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the first time the disease was detected in a West Virginia national park.

CWD affects several deer, elk and moose species across North America, and is fatal to infected animals, with no known cure or treatment.

There have been no reported instances of CWD infecting humans, but the World Health Organization advises against the consumption of CWD-infected animals.

All venison from the deer infected with CWD was destroyed, according to a Tuesday press release from the National Park Service (NPS).

NPS said it detected the instances of CWD during ongoing efforts to reduce deer populations “to protect and restore native plants, promote healthy and diverse forests and preserve historic landscapes.”

Similar deer population reduction efforts are being conducted in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to NPS.

In March, three white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD in Maryland’s Antietam National Battlefield and Monocacy National Battlefield, located less than 20 and 25 miles away, respectively.

This also marked the disease’s first documented occurrence in either battlefield, according to NPS.

CWD can cause “drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness and other neurological symptoms, though it can take more than a year for these symptoms to present, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The NPS will continue to participate in monitoring of collected deer for CWD and will destroy venison testing positive for CWD,” NPS said. “If you see sick or dead wildlife, avoid contact with the animal and notify a National Park Service employee as soon as possible.”

Disease Spread Prompts Deer Transport Restrictions

West Virginia officials have placed restrictions on the disposal and transport of deer carcasses in two more counties in response to a disease.

The state Division of Natural Resources says in a news release the restrictions start July 1 in Berkeley and Mineral counties. The restrictions are already in Hampshire, Hardy and Morgan counties.

The restrictions are designed to combat the spread of chronic wasting disease, which is concentrated in brains and spinal cords of infected deer. There are exceptions, including finished taxidermy mounts and meat that has been boned out.

The statement says the disease was found in two road-kill deer in Berkeley County and one sick deer in Mineral County.

The disease has been detected in nearly 350 deer since 2005, nearly all of them in Hampshire County.

Public Health Administrators Meet to Discuss 25 Percent Cut to Funding

The Executive Council for the West Virginia Association of Local Health Departments met Wednesday to discuss the effects of the proposed $4 million in funding cuts to local public health services for fiscal year 2017 as outlined in Governor Tomblin’s budget proposal to the legislature last week.

Council members fear this 25 percent reduction in funding will not only have huge consequences for daily operations, but also much more serious ones for the citizen who rely on public health services.

Michael Kilkenny, physician director at the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, said part of the responsibilities of local health departments is to monitor the general population for threats to public health.

“The proposed cuts would really cripple our surveillance efforts,” Kilkenny said. “We are mandated to watch for specific diseases and some of these diseases are a nuisance but some of these diseases are deadly. If we stop watching for those diseases, those diseases will spread, people will get sick and some of those people will die.”

Kilkenny believes these cut will end up costing the state money in the long run.

“I think everyone is well-aware that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Kilkenny said. “If we stop watching, if we delay our response to any disease outbreak, we’re going to pay the price on the other side by treating more people.”

Wednesday’s meeting brought health administrators and practitioners from around the region to discuss a contingency plan if the cuts are sustained.

Many voiced concerns that there is a misconception about what public health services do. These services are not individual-based services, but services designed to protect and promote the health of a community as a whole, such as managing an infectious disease outbreak, which Monongalia County’s Executive Health Director, Lee Smith, said are on the rise in West Virginia.

“Sexually transmitted infections are certainly on the up-tick in West Virginia, and some are related and co-infected with HIV,” Smith said. “Ebola, MERS, Dengue, Chicken Gunya, and now Zika are all part of our vocabulary. All of these are diseases that we have to deal with and you don’t get these services anywhere else. They are not at the hospital. They’re going to treat the active patient, but no one is going to surveillance, no one is going to do the monitoring other than public health.”

While many county administrators are pleading with Governor Tomblin to prevent the cuts, ultimately it is state lawmakers that will decide whether to follow through with his proposal.

One member of the Legislature, Republican Senator Chris Walters, is proposing a bill that will help the state pay for local health department services. His proposal calls for a reduction in the number of county health department administrators to save the state money and help continue to pay for the much needed services.

“The bill is a regionalization bill,” Walters said. “It does not regionalize the health departments, per se, it leaves the departments in their localities. It regionalizes the administration. Currently we have 49 administers for health departments across the state. I feel that if we did a regionalization of the administrators, we could start pulling these resources together have these departments start billing insurance. Currently, they’re just living off line-item tax-payer dollars and not actually billing the insurance companies, where they’d be able to bring in money as well.”

This bill also has another provision that create needle exchanges at rural health departments across the state.

Walters says he expects the bill to be introduced to the Senate tomorrow.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Whooping Cough On The Rise in W.Va.

West Virginia health officials are reporting a spike in the disease commonly known as whooping cough.

According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports 52 confirmed cases of pertussis in West Virginia so far this year. That’s up from 18 cases last year and 19 cases in 2013.

Symptoms include uncontrollable, violent coughing which often makes it hard to breathe. After fits of many coughs, someone with pertussis often needs to take deep breaths which result in a “whooping” sound. Pertussis can affect people of all ages, but can be very serious, even deadly, for babies less than a year old.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the state health commissioner, says outbreaks of the contagious respiratory disease tend to occur in three- to five-year cycles. There were 168 cases in 2010.

The DHHR has sent an advisory to health-care providers across the state alerting them to look for symptoms of pertussis and coordinate with local health officials in testing for suspected cases.