A deadly disease that plagues deer was recently detected in the remains of a road-killed deer in Florida — marking the first known instance of the illness found in the state, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Thursday.
The road-killed animal was a 4-year-old female white-tailed deer in Holmes County. It is the state’s first known case of “chronic wasting disease,” a disease of the brain and central nervous system. The neuro-degenerative illness is fatal for deer, elk, moose, caribou and other members of the deer family. The disease has not been reported to be transferable to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the wildlife commission, the first case of the disease in North America was logged in mule deer in Colorado in 1967. And Florida is the most recent of 31 states to detect the disease, which was found in four Canadian provinces, as well as Finland, Norway, Sweden and South Korea.
