10-24 IAN EHD
As if North Dakotans haven’t faced enough problems in their cattle herds, now there is word that a fatal disease has struck North Dakota's deer population this year and that disease, known as epizootic hemorrhagic disease or EHD is now being found in cattle. If it can happen in NorthDakota, can it happen in Idaho? I called Idaho’s chief veterinarian, Dr. Bill Barton. “EHD is a disease that is fairly common in the US in certain populations of whitetail deer. Cattle can be affected. We do not see it as often in cattle as we do in some of the deer population. We have not had any reported cases in Idaho. That is probably because we do not have a reservoir of it in our deer populations as yet. When it does affect cattle, it affects the tissues in the mouth and throat, it causes difficulty eating, chewing, drinking, swallowing. Thus the animals become debilitated because of dehydration and the inability to take in food. Apparently it is not transmitted animal to animal but through midges. It is vector borne which means there is some sort of insect that carries it and in this case it is a midge that travels from one animal to another and transmits the disease, that is how cattle get it from deer, is through the insect vector.
