COVID-19 not detected in South Dakota white-tailed deer following positive cases in Iowa

A recent study out of Penn State and the Iowa Wildlife Bureau found that between Sept. 2020 and Jan. 2021, 94 white-tailed deer out of 283 in Iowa had COVID-19.

However, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks says that it’s not seen any COVID-19 transmission within deer in the state and have not been testing for the disease. Instead, the department has found a large number of deer died from EHD, known as epizootic hemorrhagic disease, especially in the northwest corner of the state.

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EHD happens when a biting midge infects a white-tailed deer, but the bite can also impact mule deer, elk and pronghorns. The disease is always fatal, according to Nick Harrington a spokesperson for GF&P, and kills deer within a few days of getting bit. But most of EHD season is finished since the first frost killed most of the midges.

“We always stress not harvesting an animal that looks sick,” Harrington said.

GFP is also concerned about Chronic Wasting Disease, CWD, which can be transferred across the state by dead deer improperly cared for by hunters.

What hunters need to know

Harrington stresses that hunters need to properly process their game beginning out in the field all the way to the home oven.

“We always are encouraging hunters when you're field dressing an animal, wear gloves. Make sure all your make sure all your knives, everything's sanitized,” he said. “Wash your hands right after.”

Harrington also recommends choosing the kinds of cleaning kits where the gloves go up to the shoulders. “It saves a lot of shirtsleeves,” he said.

In order to avoid CWD, which an infected white-tailed deer can live with for years without showing physical symptoms and is caused by an abnormal protein called prion, hunters need to be careful when transferring their kill out of the woods.

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If a hunter from Webster harvests a deer from the Black Hills, drives home and disposes of the carcass improperly, “there's a chance that prion could get into the soil and could be transmitted to deer in the Webster area,” Harrington explained.

And in the kitchen, hunters should be cooking their kill to the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommended 165 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.

Where else in the U.S. have deer been infected by COVID-19?

While the study out of Iowa, found a third of the deer they surveyed between 2020 and 2021 had COVID-19, other studies have found white-tailed deer with COVID-19 antibodies elsewhere in the U.S.

The USDA collected samples between Jan. 2020 and March 2021 from Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania. Out of the 481 white-tailed deer samples, 33% had COVID-19 antibodies.

However, there’s no evidence that white-tailed deer can transmit the disease to humans.

Follow Annie Todd on Twitter @AnnieTodd96. Reach out to her with tips, questions and other community news at atodd@argusleader.com or give her a call at 605-215-3757.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota officials say COVID-19 hasn't been detected in deer