BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Officials say chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in a deer from a farm where deer are raised in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development says the disease was confirmed this week in a female deer at the Mecosta County farm.
State veterinarian James Averill says in a statement that the deer farmer whose herd is affected “has gone above and beyond any state requirements to protect … deer from disease.” Averill says it wasn’t immediately known how the infection made it to the herd.
The neurological disease affects white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose. It’s spread through saliva and other body fluids of infected animals. There have been about 30 confirmed or suspected infections of whitetail deer in the state since 2015.