Pa. Game Commission seeks public's help with rabbit and deer disease monitoring
The Pennsylvania Game Commission released some disturbing news regarding rabbits and deer this week.
A disease that has been found inn rabbits in several other states has now been found in Pennsylvania. For deer, a case of Chronic Wasting Disease was found in a new area in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Rabbits and RHD
The agency would like the public to report any sightings where two or more rabbits or hares are found dead and it’s not apparent what caused their demise.
The concern involves Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (RHDV2), one of the viruses that causes Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD).
In working with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the Game Commission shared details about two captive rabbits from a facility located in Fayette County testing positive for the disease. It’s the first documented case in Pennsylvania, but it has been found in other parts of the United States.
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As of August, it is considered endemic in wild lagomorph (hare/rabbit) populations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. It's been detected in domestic rabbit populations in those states, as well as Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin.
The Game Commission reports RHD poses no human health risk. However, multiple dead or sick hares and rabbits can also be a sign of tularemia or plague, diseases that can cause serious illness in humans. Therefore, it’s important that the public not handle or consume wildlife that appears sick or has died from an unknown cause. It is also important to prevent pets from contacting or consuming wildlife carcasses.
There is no specific treatment for RHD and the agency reports it is often fatal, with die-offs of local populations potentially reaching 75% to 100%. The virus is resilient and may remain on the landscape for months, too.
The commission is asking the people to make reports by calling 1-833-PGC-WILD or by using the online Wildlife Health Survey reporting tool at www.pgcapps.pa.gov/WHS.
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Domestic rabbit owners who have questions about this disease should contact their veterinarians, who in turn should immediately report suspected cases of RHD to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Health at 717-772-2852, option 1. Veterinarians can call this line anytime.
Deer and CWD
The commission has expanded Disease Management Area 2 in southeastern Pennsylvania because a doe tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease in Upper Mifflin Township, Cumberland County.
The deer was tested after being found dead along a highway.
CWD is a fatal neurological disease in animals like deer, moose and elk that was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2012. Deer can spread CWD when they are in close quarters with each others’ saliva, urine or feces.
As a result of the animal’s location, DMA 2 has expanded east into more of Cumberland, Adams and York counties. The PGC reports the change is in effect for the upcoming hunting seasons and hunters within the new DMA 2 boundaries will be required to comply with additional regulations designed to slow the spread of the disease.
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Those regulations prohibit hunters from removing deer or elk high-risk parts, which include the head, spinal column and spleen, from the DMA boundaries. You can’t feed deer or use deer or elk urine-based attractants.
In a DMA it’s also illegal to try to rehabilitate wild, free-ranging deer or elk.
The new boundary line for DMA 2 follows Route 134 north from the Maryland line for about 4 miles to the intersection of U.S. Route 15, then follows Route 15 north for 36.4 miles, crossing Route 581 where it becomes Route 11. It then follows Route 11 for 2.4 miles to where it meets the west shore of the Susquehanna River at Front Street. The boundary follows the Susquehanna River north for about 15.1 miles to Route 22.
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This is the second time this year the boundary line has expanded for DMA 2 and new findings have been found in other parts of the state. The agency reports DMA 4 in southeastern Pennsylvania grew in southern Lancaster County earlier this year and DMA 7 in northeastern Pennsylvania was created in response to a CWD-positive deer at a captive facility. DMA 7 is the fifth area formed following the detection of a CWD-positive deer within a captive facility. The agency has found 261 cases of CWD in deer in the 2021-2022 monitoring season.
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To reduce the chances of the deer passing CWD onto other deer, the agency has created more Deer Management Assistance Program hunting opportunities and awarded more antlerless deer licenses in DMA areas.
“Each of these DMAP units is around a high-priority CWD detection,” Game Commission CWD Section Coordinator Andrea Korman said in a news release. “We hope to increase sample numbers in these areas so that we can have a better understanding of the extent of the disease.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on your website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on social media @whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: RHD found in rabbits, more CWD in Pa.
