Washington Hunter
Well-known member
Deer study under way
HENRY MILLER / Statesman Journal
A herd of mule deer hangs out in a pen at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area.
An OSU student is trying to find out if mule deer can get a fatal hair disease.
HENRY MILLER Statesman Journal February 7, 2004
CORVALLIS — It’s a seemingly simple question.
Can mule deer get deer hair loss syndrome?
Jason Robison, a graduate student at Oregon State University in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, is looking for the answer.
“Our research question is whether mule deer can get it,” he said about the syndrome that can be lethal to black-tail deer, especially first-year fawns.
During an 18-month research project for his master’s thesis, Robison is studying captive mule and black-tail deer at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area just north of Corvallis.
“Now that we’ve got some deer to start off with, I’m pretty excited about it,” he said, stretching a section of orange plastic mesh to take the sharp angle off the corner of one of the research enclosures.
Six first-year mule deer for the study — four males and two females — arrived via truck Wednesday night. They had been trapped near Baker City.
In all, 30 deer will be collected for the study: 18 mule deer from the Baker City/John Day area, and 12 black-tail deer, six each from the Applegate and Chetco Management areas, and six infected deer from the Alsea Unit.
The initial six mulies were in a holding shed to be checked out before being released Thursday morning into one of five 164 feet-by-96 feet enclosures formed by 8-feet-high wire fences.
As a precaution, a separate, 8-foot perimeter fence surrounds the compound to eliminate contact with deer on the wildlife area outside of the study pens.
Robison and Mike Moore, a wildlife technician at E.E. Wilson, put the finishing touches on the interior for the first arrivals.
Moore, also a wildlife biology graduate at Oregon State, was equally excited for the project to get under way at the converted, long-disused pheasant pens at the wildlife area.
“This is pretty new for me, pretty exciting,” he said. “It’s really interesting.
“And like Jason says, it’s a hot topic.”
The dead of winter is when the syndrome becomes noticeable, Robison said.
“Basically, what we want to do is collect deer when you’re actually starting to see the clinical signs in moderate amounts, so the middle of winter’s probably the best time to sample for that,” Robison explained.
The tradeoff is that winter already is a burden on deer, especially those that are suffering from deer hair loss syndrome.
“These mule deer traveled really well,” he said about the trapping and ride from Baker to E.E. Wilson. “But we may go back to Baker City and come back with others and not have so much luck.
“We’re a little concerned on the infected deer, because they’re already severely stressed, anyway.”
Nobody knows just how many black-tailed deer in Western Oregon have the syndrome, but biologists have estimated that it could be up to 30 percent.
“Because black-tail deer live in the Coast Range, it’s hard to detect their numbers,” Robinson said. “We really don’t know. The basic demographic data that they have to go on is fawn-to-doe ratios, which have dropped substantially in the last 10 years.
“Really, the mortality rate’s not known. It’s estimated to be as high as 30 (percent) to 40 percent.”
It’s a nasty death.
Deer literally lick, chew or scrape off their insulating fur.
According to a fact sheet put out by Fish and Wildlife, the first sign, usually in November and December, is a darkening of the coat on the animal’s sides.
By January, and lasting until April, it progresses to yellow to white discolorations over the ribcage, flanks, rump and neck.
Animals are emaciated, and have diarrhea and sluggishness. Death, especially for the younger, more vulnerable animals, often follows.
If a deer makes it through until summer, hair starts to regrow, and the deer start to put on weight.
A non-native lice that has been found on deer with the syndrome is the suspected culprit.
“That’s our primary hypothesis; we’re looking at this lice as maybe the primary factor, with maybe several secondary factors leading to mortality,” Robison said. “Our best guess right now, and not know all the facts, is that it was somehow brought over with exotic game animals by game farmers.
“It’s believed that it’s Asian, that it has an Asian host species, and so it’s quite possible that an Asian deer brought over for game farming was involved.”
During the course of the study, Robison will intermix infested black-tails with mule deer that do not have the lice.
Other mule deer and black-tails will be kept in separate pens, out of contact, as a control group.
The final group of mule deer will be “innoculated,” have the lice put on them, to see if no nose-to-nose contact with infected deer isn’t necessary to transmit the parasites.
Anecdotally, there have been several reports of the syndrome in mule deer east of the Cascade Range, he said.
If the study proves the lice, and the syndrome, can jump from black-tailed deer to mulies, it would have big implications, Robison said.
“It’s affecting Columbian white-tail deer, so there’s no reason at all why it shouldn’t affect mule deer,” he said.
So far, Robison said, the major valley corridors from Washington into Northern California are theorized to be the reason for the rapid, wide spread of deer hair loss syndrome among black-tails.
“Any exotic species is going to move, expand its range as fast as it can, and it’s got two nice corridors to expand north and south,” he said about the lice. “Once it fills that range, it’s got to go east and west.
“It’s only a matter of time if this is what’s really happening before it starts expanding into our mule deer.”
Especially worrisome is the habit of mule deer to congregate in small areas during the winter.
“That’s another biggie with mule deer,” he said. “Mule deer tend to herd-up in the winter in lare numbers, easy access for lice to spread.”
The bulk of the $250,000 costs for the 18-month study are being picked up by the Oregon Hunters Association, the Black-Tail Deer Foundation, Robison said.
“We’re hoping to start collecting data by the second week in March,” he said. “All have all our mule deer in the next two weeks.
“And then we’ll collect the black-tail deer.”
If the lice, and the disease, can jump between black-tail and mule deer, the first indications could come within the first few weeks of the study, Robison said.
Ultimately, the implications of answering the simple question about whether deer hair loss syndrome can infect mule deer could be huge.
“By identifying that question, and saying ‘yes, they can get it,’ then we can say OK, (Fish and Wildlife) and you managers, you may have an issue here: To manage your populations so that this doesn’t spread as rapidly as it has in black-tail deer,” the researcher said.
HENRY MILLER / Statesman Journal
A herd of mule deer hangs out in a pen at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area.
An OSU student is trying to find out if mule deer can get a fatal hair disease.
HENRY MILLER Statesman Journal February 7, 2004
CORVALLIS — It’s a seemingly simple question.
Can mule deer get deer hair loss syndrome?
Jason Robison, a graduate student at Oregon State University in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, is looking for the answer.
“Our research question is whether mule deer can get it,” he said about the syndrome that can be lethal to black-tail deer, especially first-year fawns.
During an 18-month research project for his master’s thesis, Robison is studying captive mule and black-tail deer at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area just north of Corvallis.
“Now that we’ve got some deer to start off with, I’m pretty excited about it,” he said, stretching a section of orange plastic mesh to take the sharp angle off the corner of one of the research enclosures.
Six first-year mule deer for the study — four males and two females — arrived via truck Wednesday night. They had been trapped near Baker City.
In all, 30 deer will be collected for the study: 18 mule deer from the Baker City/John Day area, and 12 black-tail deer, six each from the Applegate and Chetco Management areas, and six infected deer from the Alsea Unit.
The initial six mulies were in a holding shed to be checked out before being released Thursday morning into one of five 164 feet-by-96 feet enclosures formed by 8-feet-high wire fences.
As a precaution, a separate, 8-foot perimeter fence surrounds the compound to eliminate contact with deer on the wildlife area outside of the study pens.
Robison and Mike Moore, a wildlife technician at E.E. Wilson, put the finishing touches on the interior for the first arrivals.
Moore, also a wildlife biology graduate at Oregon State, was equally excited for the project to get under way at the converted, long-disused pheasant pens at the wildlife area.
“This is pretty new for me, pretty exciting,” he said. “It’s really interesting.
“And like Jason says, it’s a hot topic.”
The dead of winter is when the syndrome becomes noticeable, Robison said.
“Basically, what we want to do is collect deer when you’re actually starting to see the clinical signs in moderate amounts, so the middle of winter’s probably the best time to sample for that,” Robison explained.
The tradeoff is that winter already is a burden on deer, especially those that are suffering from deer hair loss syndrome.
“These mule deer traveled really well,” he said about the trapping and ride from Baker to E.E. Wilson. “But we may go back to Baker City and come back with others and not have so much luck.
“We’re a little concerned on the infected deer, because they’re already severely stressed, anyway.”
Nobody knows just how many black-tailed deer in Western Oregon have the syndrome, but biologists have estimated that it could be up to 30 percent.
“Because black-tail deer live in the Coast Range, it’s hard to detect their numbers,” Robinson said. “We really don’t know. The basic demographic data that they have to go on is fawn-to-doe ratios, which have dropped substantially in the last 10 years.
“Really, the mortality rate’s not known. It’s estimated to be as high as 30 (percent) to 40 percent.”
It’s a nasty death.
Deer literally lick, chew or scrape off their insulating fur.
According to a fact sheet put out by Fish and Wildlife, the first sign, usually in November and December, is a darkening of the coat on the animal’s sides.
By January, and lasting until April, it progresses to yellow to white discolorations over the ribcage, flanks, rump and neck.
Animals are emaciated, and have diarrhea and sluggishness. Death, especially for the younger, more vulnerable animals, often follows.
If a deer makes it through until summer, hair starts to regrow, and the deer start to put on weight.
A non-native lice that has been found on deer with the syndrome is the suspected culprit.
“That’s our primary hypothesis; we’re looking at this lice as maybe the primary factor, with maybe several secondary factors leading to mortality,” Robison said. “Our best guess right now, and not know all the facts, is that it was somehow brought over with exotic game animals by game farmers.
“It’s believed that it’s Asian, that it has an Asian host species, and so it’s quite possible that an Asian deer brought over for game farming was involved.”
During the course of the study, Robison will intermix infested black-tails with mule deer that do not have the lice.
Other mule deer and black-tails will be kept in separate pens, out of contact, as a control group.
The final group of mule deer will be “innoculated,” have the lice put on them, to see if no nose-to-nose contact with infected deer isn’t necessary to transmit the parasites.
Anecdotally, there have been several reports of the syndrome in mule deer east of the Cascade Range, he said.
If the study proves the lice, and the syndrome, can jump from black-tailed deer to mulies, it would have big implications, Robison said.
“It’s affecting Columbian white-tail deer, so there’s no reason at all why it shouldn’t affect mule deer,” he said.
So far, Robison said, the major valley corridors from Washington into Northern California are theorized to be the reason for the rapid, wide spread of deer hair loss syndrome among black-tails.
“Any exotic species is going to move, expand its range as fast as it can, and it’s got two nice corridors to expand north and south,” he said about the lice. “Once it fills that range, it’s got to go east and west.
“It’s only a matter of time if this is what’s really happening before it starts expanding into our mule deer.”
Especially worrisome is the habit of mule deer to congregate in small areas during the winter.
“That’s another biggie with mule deer,” he said. “Mule deer tend to herd-up in the winter in lare numbers, easy access for lice to spread.”
The bulk of the $250,000 costs for the 18-month study are being picked up by the Oregon Hunters Association, the Black-Tail Deer Foundation, Robison said.
“We’re hoping to start collecting data by the second week in March,” he said. “All have all our mule deer in the next two weeks.
“And then we’ll collect the black-tail deer.”
If the lice, and the disease, can jump between black-tail and mule deer, the first indications could come within the first few weeks of the study, Robison said.
Ultimately, the implications of answering the simple question about whether deer hair loss syndrome can infect mule deer could be huge.
“By identifying that question, and saying ‘yes, they can get it,’ then we can say OK, (Fish and Wildlife) and you managers, you may have an issue here: To manage your populations so that this doesn’t spread as rapidly as it has in black-tail deer,” the researcher said.
