Need help please blue tongue

Can anyone help me. We have deer that have blue tungue. Also some that look like they be getting it. Is there anything new we can try to save them? What is the best thing we can do at this time?



hopeless?

Draxxin load them up

call Kevin Grace at Whitetail Sales and order a fogger by Adapco. It fits in back of polaris or other cart. fog every evening and you can eliminate midges. It works for me.



very simple and effective.



Bill Holdman

Elam Woods Whitetails

Ph 318-381-1534

If you have deer survive,the virus may still be present,so the cycle may continue.

Midges are the vector & controling them will help.There still needs to be a carrier.I don't know what its like there, but the first place I'd start looking is at sheep.



Cheers Sharkey

OK I'm gonna say this, and I expect you will chastise me for what I am about to say. Keep in mind, I have been deer farming for 30 years and my comments are based on the data I have accumulated over the years. If I get a deer that I think has contracted EHD/Bluetongue, I plan to remove that deer from my herd. Yes, I will euthanize it if necessary to prevent the midges from biting the infected deer and continuing the spread of the disease throughout the rest of my herd. It is my experience that only about 5%10% of the deer that actually contract EHD survive (with or without human intervention) the disease. Call me crazy, insensitive, or cruel, but my logic is indisputable. Now, having said that, I will make every attempt to isolate an ill deer in a controlled environment when possible and throw everything in the medicine chest to try to save it, but if TOTAL isolation is not possible, then other means are necessary. OK let's hear your comments...................

Mother nature is a cruel ***** !!



I agree with Scott, it is better to lose one the easy way, than 10 more the hard way.

The main host or carrier over for blue tongue virus in the U.S is cattle. It never ceases to amaze me that people don't pick up on all the cattle diseases which can spread to deer and elk. Yet deer and elk freely mingle with cattle and no one cares. The cattle industry sure has kept a led on these facts.

Isn't it funny that bexause of the cattle industry we have to TB/Brucellosis test to move between states, but cattle are never tested for carrying EHD.

Allow me to ask a stupid question. If cattle carry the EHD virus can we make EHD vaccines from them?

Bluetongue & Epizootic hemorragic disease (EHD) are different viruses.



EHD effects whitetail & little else,cattle & sheep are carriers. Other species of deer ,as well as goats & antelope could be carriers too.The species of midges & their prefered food animal ,ie cattle or sheep, could & should play a significant role in managing this disease.We have found EHD in QLD, Aust,in chital & rusa,but I'm not aware of any animals going clinical.



Bluetongue will effect sheep & cattle.Sheep are highly susceptible & present more severe signs of infection than cattle ,goats, deer & antelope.Some cattle or deer could carry this virus,without showing any clinical signs & serve as a reservoir,infecting others , via midges, which are again the vector.



Both the above present the same clinical signs.

I don't know of an "effective" vaccine.



Different species of midges have prefered food animals. Keep in mind if you suddenly remove all of the suspected carriers from an area at once,you may force the midges to feed more on the species your trying to protect,even though these midges may never have fed on deer otherwise.Make changes slowly & allow the population of vectors/midges to decline before completly removing the carriers.



MCF is the hemorragic virus which causes me most grief,sheep are the carrier, & again midges are the vector.I keep my tropical deer & antelope at least 2 klms inside my property & away from neighbours sheep (maggot taxies).I've also called a truce with the wild dogs & dingo's,if they don't chase my deer I don't chase them.I created my own problem by culling out the dogs.This allowed the neighbours to get into sheep.



Cheers Sharkey

Thanks Sharkey.