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The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced that a deadly neurological disease in deer had first appeared in the Upper Peninsula.
The 4-year-old doe was found about four miles from the Wisconsin border in Dickinson County.
Chronic debilitating disease, or CDD, is a life-threatening neurological disease in deer, moose and elk. The disease attacks the brain of an infected animal by creating small lesions that result in neurological symptoms. The disease is always fatal in the animals that contract it.
To date, no case of MDC infection has been reported in humans.
"We are taking immediate steps to remedy the situation in the Upper Peninsula. In the short term, it is a priority to strengthen testing and active surveillance to better understand where the disease is, "said Russ Mason, MNR Wildlife Division Chief.
State wildlife officials are monitoring this part of the West of the United Kingdom. the signs of the MDC given the problems that Wisconsin has encountered with the disease.
There is concern that the disease is spreading in the United States, in part because of deer winter migration patterns, which often require deer to congregate in large numbers.
"These … natural concentrations of deer could potentially increase the spread of the disease," says Chad Stewart, DNR cervid management specialist.
There is no vaccine against MDC. State wildlife officials hope to contain the outbreak.
A central area of about 10 miles was created, centered on the Township of Waucedah. In this area, the DNR is aimed at testing at least 600 deer to better determine the extent of possibly infected deer.
State wildlife officials have already done so.
There have been 63 cases of CWD in the Lower Peninsula in recent years. Infected deer were found in Clinton, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent and Montcalm Counties.
Twenty-five states and three Canadian provinces have confirmed the presence of chronic debilitating disease in deer, elk and moose in freedom or in captivity, or both.
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