The Iowa DNR has created an online reporting tool and annual dashboard to track and report cases of hemorrhagic disease outbreaks. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is asking hunters and landowners to report deer that died from a hemorrhagic disease outbreak via a new online reporting tool.
DNR officials hope the tool will give them a better understanding of how the disease works as well as the impact of weather on the disease and if deer are adapting to it.
Chris Ensminger, a wildlife researcher at the Iowa DNR, said the department has struggled to monitor previous outbreaks as there was no place for people to report diseased animals.
“One of the things that we’ve struggled with is all the reports were just strictly word of mouth,” Ensminger said. “We decided that we needed to get a tool out there that the public could access directly and report directly.”
A person reporting a dead deer on the DNR’s website will be asked for contact information, the number of dead deer, the location of the carcass and whether the carcass was near a body of water.
In addition to the reporting tool, the DNR has also released an annual dashboard to track the disease. Since the end of July, there have been nine reports of outbreaks across eight different counties, totaling 21 dead deer.
The severity of outbreaks differs from year to year, Ensminger said. There were intense reports of outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), also known as bluetongue, in 2012, 2013, 2019 and most recently in 2023 . Ensminger said this year is not expected to be particularly deadly.
The disease comes from a virus that is spread by the bite of tiny flies. While these flies bite humans, the virus is not known to affect humans.
Deaths between July to September, multiple deer carcasses, carcasses near bodies of water and the dead deer looking healthy are signs of the disease that people can recognize, Ensminger added.
While deer populations generally recover from an outbreak in two to three years, help with recovery may be needed in counties with declining or low deer populations, according to the Iowa DNR.
Ensminger said while the discussions around the disease seem dire today, the future outlook is promising as researchers believe the deer herds will become more immunized to the disease as time goes on.
“T he outlook on EHD in the short term can be pretty bleak because a farm owner or landowner could walk out there and find 30 dead deer and that’s really devastating for today,” Ensminger said. “However, the long-term prognosis is actually pretty good. We will probably go through this and come out on the other end with a stronger more resistant herd.”
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