Do Deer Get Diseases?
Posted on April 12 2019
Like other types of warm-blooded mammals, white-tailed deer do get their fair share of diseases spread by one animal to another. Deer hunters should be especially careful of tick diseases, including Lyme Disease, and Chronic Wasting Disease - although there have not been confirmed cases of these deer diseases affecting humans due to possible infected deer meat.
Here are common diseases in deer courtesy of the American Veterinary Medical Association:
- Anaplasmosis
- Babesiosis
- Brucellosis
- Campylobacteriosis (Campylobacter jejuni)
- Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)***
- Cryptosporidiosis
- Deer Parapoxvirus
- Hydatid Tapeworms (Echinococcosis)
- Ehrlichiosis
- Equine Encephalitis Viruses
- Escherichia coli Infection (E. coli)
- Giardiasis
- Hantavirus
- Leptospirosis
- Lyme Disease (Lyme borreliosis) ***
- Q fever
- Rabies
- Raccoon Roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis)
- Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
- Salmonellosis (Salmonella species)
- Sarcoptic mange
- Toxoplasmosis
- Trichinellosis (trichinosis)
- Tuberculosis
- Tularemia
- West Nile Virus
- Specific Risks Associated with International Hunting
- Chikungunya
- Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever
- Rift Valley Fever virus
Deer farmers will need to protect domestic deer from potentially infected deer with woven wire fencing and even electric fence as a secondary barrier. Solid lock fence is the strongest metal fence on the market for farm animals including cattle, sheep, goats and domestic deer.
