Free: Contests & Raffles.
When the winter is tough on em we help em out.. These pics and movies are all out of the kitchen window. looks to be a good yr coming Fat boys This movie below gives ya a better idea
Mule Deer Hair loss in Yakima: Dr. Briggs Hall and Region 3 staff visited a landowner who reported hair loss in the mule deer for which he was providing winter feed. Staff immobilized a subject with mild hair loss and collected lice and sent samples in to Dr. Jim Mertins at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory. Dr. Mertins has identified the lice as Bovicola tibialis, another exotic louse species separate from the exotic louse Bovicola cervicola, which is causing hair loss in the black tailed deer. Bovicola tibialis is the common louse of fallow deer. B. tibialis has been identified in North America on only four previous occasions. The locations were California and British Columbia. Per Dr. Mertins, B. tibialis is a parthenogenic species (no male required for reproduction) and as such can spread more efficiently. The other louse samples sent were all from black tailed deer suffering from hair loss and were identified as B. cervicola.
There are areas of concern, however. The hair loss syndrome that has afflicted blacktailed deer populations in Western Washington for several years, caused by an exotic lice, appears to have jumped to mule deer herds in some regions east of the Cascades. In the Puget Sound region, deer populations are still being limited by development pushing out into the foothills, and by reduced timber operations on national forest lands higher up.Also, the hair loss syndrome, which seems to have stabilized in Western Washington, may have resulted in higher than usual winter losses of mule deer in Yakima County.
Wildlife Health Issues in Washington StateBy Briggs Hall DVM, and Kristin Mansfield DVM Black-tailed deer hair loss syndromeA definitive diagnosis as to the underlying cause of the hair loss syndrome in black-tailed deer may be near. Dr. James Mertins, an entomologist with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, has identified the lice which are causing west side black-tailed deer to rub, chew, and lick their hair out, as Damalina cervicola, an exotic (non-native) species. Early on it was evident that hair loss deer were suffering from an intense dermatitis caused by large numbers of biting lice. Previously parasitologists identified the lice as Damalina bovicola, the common and native deer louse. Whereas lice are not uncommon on black- tailed deer, it is believed that louse numbers only increase to harmful levels when the deer’s immune system becomes stressed by nutritional deficiencies, debilitating disease processes, or heavy internal parasite loads. Our attempt to identify this unknown stressor has been the focus of our research. Damalina cervicola is a louse historically found on old world ungulate hosts. According to Dr. Mertins, D. cervicola was first recognized in southeastern United States fourteen years ago. D. cervicola may have entered Washington in conjunction with the influx of large numbers of exotic deer in the 1980’s. According to biologists, a new parasitic species will be much more damaging to a host than a similar parasite with which the host has been associated for centuries. We are continuing to submit lice collected from hair loss deer residing in various locations around western Washington. If we continue to extract the exotic louse (D. cervicola) from the deer suffering from hair loss syndrome, we may soon be able to say with confidence that the exotic louse is the cause of the black-tailed deer hair loss syndrome.
The expansion of an exotic louse Bovicola tibialis, which was first documented in the area in 2005, may be one factor in the population decline. Deer with signs of hair loss were observed in 2004 and observations have increased dramatically since then. Bovicola tibialis is separate from the exotic louse Bovicola cervicola, which has caused hair loss in the black tailed deer in western Washington and Oregon. PMU’s 32 and 33 have been the hardest hit, but deer with clinical signs have been seen in PMU 35 and the lice are likely spreading into PMU’s 34 and 36.
Management conclusionsIt is unknown how the lice will affect deer long-term, but the short-term outlook is bleak. It appears that populations have declined 50% in areas impacted by lice. The lice are spreading and a population decline in PMU 36 is expected. PMU 34 is more separated from infected populations, especially the southern end, and hopefully won’t be affected in the near future. Management of PMU’s 32, 33, 35 and 36 will be difficult if the impacts of lice and hair loss persist. One option is to provide hunting opportunity now and harvest antlerless deer at a high rate before they die during winter. This option may help slow the spread of lice. A second option would be to be very conservative with antlerless harvest in hopes that surviving deer might have some natural immunity and population will recover quickly. More discussions are needed with people knowledgeable about lice and deer before a management direction is chosen.
