https://www.iowawhitetail.com/forum...ion-quest-for-info-to-combat-ehd-ticks.55931/
A little history & thought above. I’ve watched this cycle where I’ve “followed, tracked & paid attention to cycles” for 15+ years now. Guessing.
So.... my 2 main pockets of farms are 7-8 miles apart. BOTH had very little EHD in 2012 & 2103 for example. MANY other farms 10 to 100 miles away got absolutely pummeled those years. Why???? No clue!! (Ok, well, at time no clue). Then, I’m “home free!!!!” Right?!?!? NOPE!!!!!! 2015 being the worst, lots of rain (fluctuating ponds & rivers) - I found 26 dead bucks on one farm alone in a year. All over. Death central. The areas that got pummeled in ‘12 & ‘13 - hardly found any. Partially because they got hit hard earlier but something else was at play.
It runs cycles. I think resistsance is part of it. Bottom line: 7 strains of EHD..... 1-2 may have wiped you clean and you don’t see a new strain for “xyz more years”. Resistance is Built.
Another “coincidence” going deeper down the rabbit hole- both of my farms, for whatever reasons, had massive amounts of new cattle trucked in during 2015 for example. Bringing new disease, strains and also creating more “mud” & midge paradise. Combine that with a herd that hadn’t got much ehd (no resistance that killed off 2012-2013 deer elsewhere), new cattle, mud & fluctuating water levels- absolute carniage.
Rewind to 2017...... severe drought!!!!!!!! Right wrong or indifferent - I put out sulfur & garlic & deer ate it. It’s been the ONLY year ever I found ZERO dead deer. Yet- my whole area had very little die off. resistence & part of cycle or garlic & sulfur helping????? I do Not know. Likely both. I always find a few in aug to oct that I’m 99% sure die of ehd. Last year was drought & 1st year I didn’t find any.
So.... CYCLE & disease resistence are key issues at play. Water is a big element but not the only element. I personally think movement of cattle is a bigger deal to deer deaths, IMO, than cwd ever will be or has been. I personally think there’s a strong ehd & cattle link that if we studied more- would correlate strongly. LOOK at maps in above link a couple pages in. Coincidence???? I don’t think so. But- if you were ravaged in the past with ehd- this drought is a roll of the dice - you may be just fine. More to it than anyone can put together right now. Good luck and hope you starting with healthy deer & avoid an ehd hit.[/QUOT
We had EHD deaths BAD IN 2012 and 2013 and bad enough in 2015, cattle there all three years. COULD be a correlation but did a WHOLE bunch of new cattle show up in most of the midwest in 2012 causing the widespread EHD?? Probably more at play than cattle with EHD IMHO.
