My Knowledge & Solution quest for Info to combat EHD & TICKS....
- Thread starter Sligh1
- Start date
Here’s something interesting... spent some time with some veterinarians and following up with some “light reading”. In VERY SHORT....
EHD & BLUE TONGUE - the way I read, listened & understood it- are NOT diseases that have been “around here forever”. For example.... BT was discovered in South Africa over a 100 years ago. It took around 40 years after that to find an outbreak in other areas. Not wide spread but grew in prevalence from there.
Same with EHD.... a few cases or discovery in 1890’s. 1955 & 1968 had the 1st confirmed & reported cases after that. New strains have been identified in recent years. Incidence & amount of outbreaks has dramatically increased in past 20 years.
Could it have been around for a long time?? Sure. It did not show massive die off’s - especially in Midwest until “very recently”. Could it be population related? Maybe BUT even in states with historically high populations - the occurrence of ehd & BT is exponentially higher as of recent years.
2012 saw the worst outbreak in history across Midwest states. Worst ever before that was 1998 I believe & was a fraction of the impact. The devastation & incidence is growing!!
Here’s some of discussion I found interesting (I’m sorry if I get some of this wrong- trying to condense what I understood the best I can)....
Main reason most believe it’s spread is CATTLE (discussed in previous pages).... shipment of them. They are hosts of disease & bring in new strains. I understood it like this.... a midge must bite an infected host to pick up virus. Then bite more animals making them infected. Some animals will die quickly, others won’t. During this time, they are hosts for more infections. Imagine if cattle had any number of strains of ehd or BT & how many midges could potentially use them as a host?? Insane!!! Most knew cattle were hosts & then deer become hosts but that’s why, in many expert OPINIONS, there’s a rapid explosion of ehd & BT cases.... 7+ total strains & growing & new cattle all over, all the time shipped in. Build resistance to 1 strain, bring in cattle with another strain- start all over!!!
Link below covers a few of these points but not all by far. Lot of data & wisdom out there. Interesting & troubling at same time.
https://vet.uga.edu/population_health_files/hemorrhagic-disease-brochure-2013.pdf
Gonna hit every single year! Some severe, some not. Will depend on: 1) were new cattle brought to your area? 2) is there lots of exposed mud & stagnant water? Drought? Weather on several levels. Etc, etc.
There is BT vaccines out there (not sure if it’s a boost to help them recover or a dead virus type Vaccine like flu shots????) So much conflicting research & studies on it. Ehd vaccines as well (some online research sources say they don’t exist BUT u also can find regulated gov approved vaccines available for treatment. Bizarre. Not practical in deer as of now (I believe it’s injection right now so clearly can’t be used) but just mentioning.
Hope we get a cure. Shipment of cattle is going to continue to occur. Can help with clean water, no cows on ur land, making midge habitat less frequent, etc, etc. I’ve done a lot to try and help but I still find ehd deer every single year (yes, it’s ehd. (Or BT) ). As usual- even into spring - those deer with cracked & deformed hooves finally succumb to infection. Mind boggling the devastation of ehd & BT. The skeptic in me, even in today’s world, has a hard time believing cwd will rival the growing devastation ehd & BT do across the Midwest (which, imo, only a tiny tiny fraction is reported or even discovered). IMHO- wildlife agencies minimize the devastation (Or don’t understand it or the scope of it) of ehd & BT. The power it has to wipe out huge %’s of the herd are pretty nuts. And that’s a devastation I have personally seen countless Times with my own eyes! They do recover after years but it’s devastating & incidence of outbreaks is GROWING. Best of luck this August & September. Happens every year now but hope this rain makes it a mild year.
EHD & BLUE TONGUE - the way I read, listened & understood it- are NOT diseases that have been “around here forever”. For example.... BT was discovered in South Africa over a 100 years ago. It took around 40 years after that to find an outbreak in other areas. Not wide spread but grew in prevalence from there.
Same with EHD.... a few cases or discovery in 1890’s. 1955 & 1968 had the 1st confirmed & reported cases after that. New strains have been identified in recent years. Incidence & amount of outbreaks has dramatically increased in past 20 years.
Could it have been around for a long time?? Sure. It did not show massive die off’s - especially in Midwest until “very recently”. Could it be population related? Maybe BUT even in states with historically high populations - the occurrence of ehd & BT is exponentially higher as of recent years.
2012 saw the worst outbreak in history across Midwest states. Worst ever before that was 1998 I believe & was a fraction of the impact. The devastation & incidence is growing!!
Here’s some of discussion I found interesting (I’m sorry if I get some of this wrong- trying to condense what I understood the best I can)....
Main reason most believe it’s spread is CATTLE (discussed in previous pages).... shipment of them. They are hosts of disease & bring in new strains. I understood it like this.... a midge must bite an infected host to pick up virus. Then bite more animals making them infected. Some animals will die quickly, others won’t. During this time, they are hosts for more infections. Imagine if cattle had any number of strains of ehd or BT & how many midges could potentially use them as a host?? Insane!!! Most knew cattle were hosts & then deer become hosts but that’s why, in many expert OPINIONS, there’s a rapid explosion of ehd & BT cases.... 7+ total strains & growing & new cattle all over, all the time shipped in. Build resistance to 1 strain, bring in cattle with another strain- start all over!!!
Link below covers a few of these points but not all by far. Lot of data & wisdom out there. Interesting & troubling at same time.
https://vet.uga.edu/population_health_files/hemorrhagic-disease-brochure-2013.pdf
Gonna hit every single year! Some severe, some not. Will depend on: 1) were new cattle brought to your area? 2) is there lots of exposed mud & stagnant water? Drought? Weather on several levels. Etc, etc.
There is BT vaccines out there (not sure if it’s a boost to help them recover or a dead virus type Vaccine like flu shots????) So much conflicting research & studies on it. Ehd vaccines as well (some online research sources say they don’t exist BUT u also can find regulated gov approved vaccines available for treatment. Bizarre. Not practical in deer as of now (I believe it’s injection right now so clearly can’t be used) but just mentioning.
Hope we get a cure. Shipment of cattle is going to continue to occur. Can help with clean water, no cows on ur land, making midge habitat less frequent, etc, etc. I’ve done a lot to try and help but I still find ehd deer every single year (yes, it’s ehd. (Or BT) ). As usual- even into spring - those deer with cracked & deformed hooves finally succumb to infection. Mind boggling the devastation of ehd & BT. The skeptic in me, even in today’s world, has a hard time believing cwd will rival the growing devastation ehd & BT do across the Midwest (which, imo, only a tiny tiny fraction is reported or even discovered). IMHO- wildlife agencies minimize the devastation (Or don’t understand it or the scope of it) of ehd & BT. The power it has to wipe out huge %’s of the herd are pretty nuts. And that’s a devastation I have personally seen countless Times with my own eyes! They do recover after years but it’s devastating & incidence of outbreaks is GROWING. Best of luck this August & September. Happens every year now but hope this rain makes it a mild year.
MadisonB&C
Active Member
Makes me wonder what the cost of vaccinating cattle would be.
deep woods goat hunter
PMA Member
What the closest/available match to the Purina rangeland pro supplement that you can find nowadays at my local farm and home store?
Hardwood11
It is going to be a good fall!
Just hope like heck EHD is not bad this year.