By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Just months after authorities in Hamilton County set out to thin an exploding deer population, a virus is believed responsible for killing 100 white-tailed deer in Clermont and Brown counties.

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, common in the Southeast but rarely seen in Ohio, does not affect humans and cannot be passed on to people who eat venison or those who come into contact with the animals. The disease also poses no real threat to livestock, except for sheep.

The ailment, also known as blue tongue, is passed to deer from gnats that live near water, and typically kills animals within 36 hours after contraction.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, have sent tissue samples of dead deer to be analyzed at a state laboratory in Reynoldsburg to confirm their suspicions. Test results are due in about two weeks.

The disease killed about 200 deer in Gallia, Meigs and Vinton counties last year. That was the first documented outbreak in Ohio. Other suspected outbreaks occurred in 1997 (Green County) and 1980 (Muskingum County). Biologists in Southern states deal with outbreaks every summer.

Mike Tonkovich, a biologist with the Division of Wildlife, said the disease is not related to chronic wasting disease, a much more common problem in Ohio deer.

He said outbreaks have the potential to be more severe than in other parts of the country because of its relative rarity here.

"Ohio deer haven't had the chance to build immunity to the disease because it happens here so infrequently," Tonkovich said, adding that that it should go away with the first frost.

The disease kills deer by causing internal bleeding. Symptoms are swelling of the head, neck and eyes. Deer that do not die in the first few days usually become lame, stop eating and often lose their fear of humans. Sometimes, the disease can linger for months.

Tonkovich said wildlife managers have to keep a sharp eye on the disease because it could affect next year's hunting quotas.

"If we lost five or 10 percent of the population, we'd have to make adjustments for that next hunting season," Tonkovich said.

In January, Hamilton County park rangers thinned the county's swelling deer population. Ohio's deer population had jumped by 40 percent this year from 1998.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com