"They are all dying at the end": Pennsylvania sounds the alarm bell on deer disease

Hunting in Pennsylvania is a $ 1.6 billion industry, Hahn said.

"So we want to ensure that hunters are happy, in any case, that we can maintain the economy," she said Wednesday. "This generates a lot of tax revenue for us and helps the state."

Chronic debilitating disease affects members of the deer family: black-tailed deer, elk, moose, mule deer, deer, reindeer, Sika deer and white-tailed deer, as well as hybrids of these species.

It was confirmed for the first time in the United States in 1967, in northern Colorado. Now, it's in almost half of the country's states. With Pennsylvania, it has since been found in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota , Texas, Utah. , Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada.

At the regional level, the disease first appeared in eastern West Virginia in 2005, in northern Virginia in 2009, and in western Maryland in 2010, close to the border with Pennsylvania.

It has been confirmed in 177 wild deer in Pennsylvania since 2012, including 78 in 2017 and 26 to June 2018.

"This disease does not respect the limits, okay, it's not an AP problem," said Dr. Kevin Brightbill, veterinarian in charge of fighting the MDC for the Department of Health. Agriculture of Pennsylvania. "It's kind of a problem on the East Coast, Maryland and West Virginia.

"I'm here to say that no matter where it comes from.If we care about the future of hunting, we have to think of strategies that wildlife lovers, deer in captivity, hunters how we can all come together and mitigate that. "