“Zombie deer” may be roaming Cincinnati’s West Side.
While the animals aren’t transforming into flesh-eating monsters, those infected with epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) are exhibiting a slew of bizarre symptoms.
Earlier this week, Colerain Township Police were called to investigate a deer on the side of Blue Rock Road.
A press release says it was initially thought the deer had been hit by a car — but that wasn’t the case.
“When officers arrived, the deer was found to be standing and staring off into the distance. This specific deer was not fazed by sirens or officers shouting at it,” reads the release. “The deer did appear to have weird patches of fur all over its body with discolored skin.”
Colerain Township police contacted a game warden with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), who said the deer was likely infected with EHD.
The warden said “the West Side of Cincinnati has been getting hit hard lately with these weird ‘Zombie Deer,'” per the release.
According to the ODNR, the symptoms of EHD include:
- Disorientation
- Little to no fear of humans
- Animals may appear feverish
- Pronounced swelling of head, neck, tongue and eyelids
- Possible respiratory distress
Trent Weaver, the game warden for Montgomery County (the Hamilton County game warden position is currently vacant), tells CityBeat that infected animals may also be seen walking in circles and almost always go toward water.
The term “zombie deer” is typically used to describe deer with chronic wasting disease — which causes its own bevy of neurological symptoms — but Weaver says he can see why people have been calling deer infected with EHD “zombies.”
“They act drunk — they don’t react normally, they don’t react to fear, they don’t react to your presence, they don’t keep their distance,” he says.
EHD is caused by midge bites and is one of the most common diseases in white-tailed deer. There’s no treatment for it and the ODNR says infected deer will die within three days of symptom onset. The virus itself “deteriorates in fewer than 24 hours after death,” says the ODNR, and it cannot spread through deer carcasses.
Weaver confirms the ODNR has seen an influx in reports of EHD, specifically in Southwestern Ohio.
“We always see [an uptick in cases] with hot, dry summers,” Weaver says.
And while he doesn’t have exact numbers, he says, “It’s high — I can tell you.”
EHD is not transmissible to humans or livestock, per the Ohio Department of Agriculture, but Weaver warns any sick or injured animal is “capable of hurting people.”
“Sick or injured ones are the ones that are going to react differently, ” he says.
He also advises against eating any venison from an animal that may have been infected.
“We would not encourage anybody to eat anything like that — any deer that is sickly looking or sickly acting — that is not a deer we want consumed by people,” Weaver says.
The ODNR says EHD is not transmitted through meat, but without testing you can’t be sure what disease a deer may have been carrying.
If you see a deer exhibiting symptoms of EHD, report your sighting to the ODNR by calling them or filling out a form at ohiodnr.gov.
Weaver says you can also call animal control and that some people will report sick deer to the police. Since there is not cure or treatment for EHD, infected animals must be euthanized.
EHD is not the only disease Ohio deer have been infected with lately. They have also been known to carry the SARS-CoV-2 COVID virus.
Related
Great, Now White-Tailed Deer — Ohio’s State Mammal — Have COVID
At the end of 2021, a report published in the journal Nature said scientists had detected COVID variants in deer in six locations across Ohio. According to a release from The Ohio State University, whose associate professor of veterinary preventative medicine authored the paper, the white-tailed deer function “as a viral reservoir of SARS-CoV-2” and their infection “would likely result in one of two outcomes.”
“The virus could mutate in deer, potentially facilitating transmission of new strains to other species, including humans, or the virus could survive in deer unmutated while it simultaneously continues to evolve in humans, and at some point when humans don’t have immunity to the strains infecting deer, those variants could come spilling back to humans,” reads the release.
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This article appears in Aug 24 – Sep 6, 2022.