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Local Wildlife Experts Suspect EHD Is Infecting, Killing Deer

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- What's killing deer in three communities in Beaver County?

The Pennsylvania Game Commission suspects it's something called EHD, or Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease.

Wildlife Conversation Officer Matt Kramer says EHD is spread by midge flies, and infected deer usually die in a matter of days.

He says there have been dead deer reported in Independence Township, Greene Township and Ohioville, but he says test results aren't back yet that could definitively point to EHD.

Diane Neugebauer and her neighbor Kathy Nelson want to know why EHD has apparently come back this year to the exact same areas after first popping up in 2007.

Officer Kramer says EHD is more common in the South and cyclical in our area.

He says humans can't get it but warns that anyone harvesting deer should not eat meat from a diseased animal. He adds that dogs and cats are not susceptible.

The first good frost, according to Officer Kramer, should end the EHD by killing the midge flies.

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