Blue Tounge ????

[LETMGROW]

I wasn't sure where to start this thread, but with Dogdoc here I thought this might be a good place.

My son was watching a hunting show the other night and a disease in deer called Blue Tounge was mentioned several times. I believe it was in the mid west somewhere.

Anyone have any insight into what this is?

Lynn

[wtnhunt]

Blue tongue is a pretty nasty disease, seems to be more common to the west of us, it is a hemorrhagic disease like ehd. We get ehd here which is so similar to blue tongue that some think ehd and blue tongue are the same, I am not a biologist or vet but from what I have read they are two different diseases. We had pretty high die offs in some places close to here a few years back from ehd. These diseases happen when a midge(small biting fly) infects the deer. Drought years seem to have higher numbers of deer that get infected.

[TN Bucknasty]

Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, blue tongue, and black tongue are all the same disease. The disease is spread by midges which I call gnats. I've heard them called noseeums. The disease is especially bad during summertime droughts because deer are concentrated around the same water sources more. In my county in 2007, it was estimated that over 25% of the deer population died from the disease. There are different strands of the virus that show up occasionally.

When deer have it, they usually don't show symptoms until it gets really bad. Their hooves crack and bust, they bleed out their butts, and they run a high fever which usually leads them to the nearest water source so you find many dead in creeks and ponds.

In August of 07, I taped a 9 point in velvet that I had seen daily all summer. He was acting perfectly normally. I never saw him after that day until I found his skeleton next to a pond a few weeks later along with 5 other carcasses, all of which were EHD victims. I've heard that the Northern deer don't have as much immunity to this disease and now that it is warmer, they are starting to feel the pain, too.

[toddyboman]

Map is kinda old......but there are some states that have been affected by EHD....

[wtnhunt]

Here is a good link from the USDA Lynn, http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jul99/blue0799.htm. Quite a bit of good information there. Including this if you read your way down:

Tests for Bluetongue and EHD

In yet another approach, ARS microbiologists James O. Mecham and William C. Wilson examine bluetongue virus proteins and genes. Their research has led to improved diagnostic procedures for bluetongue viruses and related viruses that cause epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD.

"EHD causes an often fatal illness in white-tailed deer, and it can give cattle a bluetongue-like disease," says Mecham. "For trade purposes, it is very important to be able to tell the two diseases apart." The midges that transmit bluetongue can also spread EHD.

Research at Laramie and other locations had shown that bluetongue viruses have 10 genetic segments and that differences in one of these segments distinguish each strain. Mecham and Wilson demonstrated a similar genetic makeup for the two U.S. strains of the EHD virus.

Mecham produced monoclonal antibodies that bind to specific proteins in the bluetongue viruses. Then he used the antibodies to develop an antigen capture ELISA test that detects the virus in insects and in the blood of infected animals. A specific series of amino acids produced in the laboratory, a monoclonal antibody recognizes and binds to a specific protein. Researchers use the ELISA test to evaluate the ability of the insect vectors to become infected with the viruses.

Wilson developed separate laboratory assays using polymerase chain reactions, or PCR, that detect the presence of RNA genetic material for each of several bluetongue or EHD viruses. The assays are being combined into a single test to differentiate the viruses. Wilson has also developed the first PCR test that differentiates all five U.S. strains of the bluetongue virus. Specialists at USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, have adapted the test for use in their diagnostic panel for bluetongue.

Mecham has also produced monoclonal antibodies and a competitive ELISA test that distinguishes animals infected with EHD viruses from those infected with bluetongue viruses.

"The international trade of animals and their products will continue to grow in the 21st century," says Tabachnick. ARS research programs like those at the Laramie laboratory seek to find the mechanisms controlling the spread of arthropod-borne animal pathogens like the viruses that cause bluetongue and EHD.

Can be a kind of confusing topic, I did quite a bit of reading on this topic back when I learned about it, tried to pass along information as accurately as possible with supportive links for people to research for themselves. Some people I have talked with here have confused ehd with cwd and said we have cwd here which we have not as of yet had any confirmed cases of cwd in this state.

We had a few threads here back in 2007 going when there were so many places with outbreaks of ehd, here is a link to one thread with links to several others if you are also interested there http://www.realtree.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63166. Tennessee's wildlife resources website had a good video with some good information on ehd which was one of the links in that old thread, however that video unfortunately is no longer a working page. Our dieoffs here were not as high as some neighboring counties, however it was up around the 25-30% range if I remember right. We have had a bad summer drought this year, would suspect there are some significant dieoffs this year.

[TN Bucknasty]

Here is a good link from the USDA Lynn, http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jul99/blue0799.htm. Quite a bit of good information there. Including this if you read your way down:

Can be a kind of confusing topic, I did quite a bit of reading on this topic back when I learned about it, tried to pass along information as accurately as possible with supportive links for people to research for themselves. Some people I have talked with here have confused ehd with cwd and said we have cwd here which we have not as of yet had any confirmed cases of cwd in this state.

We had a few threads here back in 2007 going when there were so many places with outbreaks of ehd, here is a link to one thread with links to several others if you are also interested there http://www.realtree.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63166. Tennessee's wildlife resources website had a good video with some good information on ehd which was one of the links in that old thread, however that video unfortunately is no longer a working page. Our dieoffs here were not as high as some neighboring counties, however it was up around the 25-30% range if I remember right. We have had a bad summer drought this year, would suspect there are some significant dieoffs this year.

Good link and good research. None of the older studies I have looked at ever indicated a difference between blue tongue and ehd.

Edited November 1, 2010 by TN Bucknasty

[matq2gs]

We had it here in Delaware a 2 years ago. We had real dry weather and the knats were bad. They supposedly found quite a few (over 20) on the Bombay Hook Wildlife Area. It was throughout the state. We are still seeing the effects of it.

[LETMGROW]

Thanks to all!

It's good to know so many are interested in the deer other than just shooting them. Kinda restores your faith in people if you know what I mean.

I am not aware of EHD here in NY but we did have some diagnosed CWD in the central part of the state. Our Dept. of Environmental Conservation acted quickly and put some restrictions in place.

We can no longer feed deer in any manner.

Until this season we had to take any deer harvested to a check station if the deer was taken within a certain area or areas.

To this point no other cases of CWD have been found or reported. The source was believed to have been careless handling of carcasses from out of state within an enclosed area holding deer.[deer farm] The DEC here took a lot of heat over the feed ban but we are up to this point free of the disease. Good for them IMHO!

Thanks again,

Lynn

[hunter109]

yea here in ohio a couple years ago we had a lot of our big old bucks and alot of our deer die from that seen a bunch that died from it they die in like 48 to 72 hours after getting that well hope we never get it agin but it is going to happen agin sometime in time

[dogdoc]

been off for a couple of days. can't add much.

[Emcgehee]

Blue Tounge ????

It's been bad in Missouri and southern Iowa from what I've seen. I've done a lot of work in northern Missouri and southern Iowa lately and talking to the farmers, it seem there are dead deer turning up everywhere. I myself found a 156" buck dead by a pond 4 days ago.

[jesse8953]

First case this year reported here in ohio-paulding county last week.Lenawee county mi. dnr had found over 100 deer this year.One was a 191 inch buck! I hope we get a hard frost soon!

[huntinguide]

Weve found over 65 around us