Published: October 12, 2007 11:53 pm      

Tests show deer died of EHD

Test results of a dead deer in Westmont Borough were released Friday and confirmed that it died of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, commonly called EHD, said Walter Cottrell, the state game commission’s wildlife veterinarian.

In late September, the game commission said that a deer died of EHD in the Seward and St. Clair Township area of Westmoreland County, a few miles to the west of the Johnstown suburb of Westmont.

There have been no other reports of sick deer or deer that have died from the disease in Cambria County, Cottrell said.

In Somerset, Franklin and Washington counties, EHD has been found in cattle, but no mortalities were reported in those cases.

There have been no reports of EHD in deer in the wild in Somerset or Franklin counties, he said.

Cottrell said other counties in which EHD has been confirmed in wild deer are Allegheny, Beaver and Greene.

On Oct. 11, the state Agriculture Department said it had confirmed EHD in farmed deer in Franklin County.

Cottrell said EHD is a common but sporadic disease in white-tailed deer populations of the United States, and is contracted by the bite of insects called “biting midges.”

EHD cannot be contracted by humans, Cottrell said.