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An overwhelming smell of “cadaverine” hung in the air over Aimee Beveridge’s 10-acre woodland property on Orcas Island, a destination best known for its salty sea scents or fragrant fir trees.
“I’ve got another one to look for,” Beveridge said with a sigh in an interview on Friday. “I can smell something dead in the woods, and I’m going to hunt and bury it.”
It was the third deer in as many weeks that had died near Beveridge’s home on scenic Island about 70 miles northwest of downtown Seattle, known for its whale watching and boating .
Among the neighbors, Beveridge is far from the only one. Since early May, residents of the San Juan Islands have reported dozens of strange deer deaths to state and local authorities.
“We just started getting calls from many deer dying for no apparent reason, with moss coming out of their mouths,” said San Juan County Sheriff Ron Krebs.
At first, county officials suspected fertilizers and pesticides, warning residents in a press release to “use caution and apply chemicals as directed.”
But after state officials sent tissue samples to a Washington State University lab for testing, the real culprit emerged a rapidly spreading virus in deer that works much like COVID-19 in humans.
A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife veterinarian said the disease, called adenovirus hemorrhagic disease, poses no risk to humans, but also that the infection could soon spread to the mainland and make a permanent home in the state.
The origin of the virus remains a mystery
First discovered in California in 1993, the disease had only been seen once in Washington before this year. In 2017, a dozen animals fell ill near Goldendale in Klickitat County.
Last fall, the virus appeared unexpectedly in the north.
“We were surprised like everyone else when he arrived in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. It was a far cry from the last known outbreaks, ”said Dr. Kristin Mansfield, the state’s wildlife veterinarian.
Mansfield said the virus is “very contagious”, spread by direct contact between deer and through the air. Like COVID-19 in humans, research suggests that healthy-looking deer can shed and spread the virus.
In deer that get sick, the virus “causes the blood vessels to become very permeable,” Mansfield said. Their lungs may fill with fluid or bleed from the intestines. There is no cure or cure.
Common signs of infection include bloody diarrhea or foam in the mouth.
“It’s a horrible way to die for these poor deer,” Mansfield said.
She said the San Juan Islands were likely to have become the epicenter of the outbreak in Washington because of a deer swimming from island to island.
Only a few kilometers separate the San Juan Islands and the Gulf Islands off Vancouver Island.
Mansfield said fecal transmission could also be possible, which means the virus could have been followed from place to place by deer droppings on tires or boots. It is also possible that scavengers feeding on carcasses or parasitic insects can spread the virus across the islands.
The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab has confirmed two cases in San Juan County using molecular PCR testing, the technology used to confirm coronavirus cases and genomic sequencing.
Residents of San Juan County have submitted sick deer to state wildlife officials. Although the cause remains unconfirmed, most are likely the virus, Mansfield said. No evidence suggests the virus has jumped to other parts of Washington state yet.
“So far we haven’t received any suspicious reports from the continent, although I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we did,” Mansfield said.
Particularly sensitive islands
The San Juan Islands where deer are abundant and have few or no natural predators could be particularly susceptible to this type of contagion.
“The deer here are like people’s pets,” Krebs said, adding that residents fed them despite warnings from his office against such practices.
In some areas, creatures shape the landscape. Beveridge said her property is strewn with daisies just because the deer leave those plants alone and chew on everything else.
Avoid feeding the deer, Mansfield said. This could bring the animals together and spread the virus. They could use some social distancing right now.
Mansfield said residents who find a dead deer should report it to state wildlife officials using the agency’s online disease reporting system, then leave the corpse alone, shoot it in. wood to break it down or, better yet, bury it. Wear gloves when handling dead animals, advises Mansfield.
Given the experience of other states that have treated the disease, Mansfield does not expect the outbreak to significantly alter deer populations. The virus often attacks fawns, and many are unlikely to survive their first year of life, whether or not they get the disease.
Still, Mansfield said Washingtonians can expect to see more of the disease in deer.
“Now that we’ve diagnosed it in two areas of Washington we’re probably going to see it pop up here and there,” Mansfield said.
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