Well I live in central Nebraska not far from Grand Island. Starting to see deer dying from Blue Tongue. Anyone else experiencing the same thing? I heard from a buddy that last week one of the local game wardens had to put down a rather large buck that was ill. My dad said he's noticed a few that are dead too. Just curious who else is experiencing these problems.
From my understanding (someone correct me if I'm wrong) it's a parasite that deer get from drinking stagnant water.
Here is a good "technical" definition of blue-tongue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetongue_disease But in layman terms, it is a virus that is typical spread by insects to livestock. It seems to be prolific during droughts. One of the symptoms is a high-fever which is typically why you will find a deer near or in the water dead. Sean http://ruggedoutdoors.tv http://facebook.com/ruggedoutdoors
From what I know deer contract it from flies that acquire the virus from other animals & when they bite, the deer contracts the disease. Deer are more often found around water sources when they die because they become incredibly thirty. Its more common in the western states for whatever reason.
That sucks BTFoutdoorsman I hope your wrong this will be my first year hunting in nc, and there allready is not a lot of deer let alone big ones here.
In NC, the initial NC Wildlife release calls out Surry and Wilkes counties, but is asking folks to report any sightings or other cases: http://www.ncwildlife.org/News/NewsArticle/tabid/416/IndexID/8250/Default.aspx
Here in the Black Hills of SD we had a bad outbreak in 2003.That was a bad drought year also! That oct. I found 6 dead bucks and several does.The skull of the 140 class buck that I found within 100 yards of one of my stands is hanging on my shed.
Blue tongue is caused by a midge that THRIVES in drought conditions. It's not pretty and I suspect is going to be a significant issue for lots of places this year.
