Now that all deer hunting seasons are done in Iowa, the local numbers in Greene County are in for certain monitoring purposes.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Aron Arthur says there were a reported 65 cases of the Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) or Blue Tongue disease found in deer in Greene County. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that is the main reason for the decline in the overall deer harvest numbers for the two shotgun seasons. He urges people to continue to contact the DNR to report any more possible Blue Tongue diseased deer so they can continue to monitor the spread of that illness.

Another area that Arthur stresses the need from the public to continue supply samples of deer is for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). He points out that even though there has not been another positive case of CWD found in Greene County for the past three years, the DNR wants to continue monitoring that illness and so they are wanting more samples. He talks about how DNR officials get samples, which is through deer heads from hunting, along with deer that were struck by motorists.

“That’s where we get a lot of the samples in Greene County. The Wildlife Technicians, they drive around looking for the roadkills because it’s just as good (of) a sample. We need them from the area to see where the disease is at and hopefully to get samples in a wide area of the county, just not one area.”     

Arthur notes that they are wanting a gland from just under the neck of where CWD impacts the deer. He adds if people want to drop off a deer head to the designated orange freezer at Spring Lake Park for them to analyze, otherwise people can contact him to let him know if they want to keep the head, they can, but the gland would still need to be removed. Call Arthur at 515-370-0422.