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Deer in Upper Peninsula tests positive for fatal illness

Posted at 12:05 AM, Oct 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-19 00:05:19-04

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (AP) — Officials say a deer in Dickinson County carried the first known case of chronic wasting disease in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The state Department of Natural Resources says the 4-year-old doe was shot on a farm in Waucedah Township. Laboratories confirmed the animal was infected with the fatal nervous system illness found in deer, moose and elk.

It was among hundreds of deer the DNR has tested in Upper Peninsula counties bordering Wisconsin.

Chronic wasting disease has been found in free-ranging deer in six Lower Peninsula counties, including Clinton, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent and Montcalm. Sixty-three deer in those counties have tested positive.

The DNR is asking hunters to submit heads of deer they kill this fall within a 10-mile area centered on Waucedah Township. They’ll be tested to determine how widely the illness has spread.