Before any Pennsylvania deer hunting seasons and autumn’s rut, Pennsylvania’s white-tailed deer herd was estimated at 1.5 million animals.

Our deer numbers are managed very well by hunters and careful studies done using deer kill reports and other biological information.

To put it simply, even with loss of habitat due to housing developments, shopping malls, warehouses, etc., the deer have adapted even better than I could have ever imagined. But, can that change quickly?

One of the readers of my column requested that I pen an article on chronic wasting disease, or CWD. I spent a bit of time reading over a variety of articles and gleaning any information I could find online.

I was also fortunate enough to reach out to Andrea Korman, CWD section supervisor with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and I thank her for spending a great deal of time on the phone answering a litany of question regarding CWD.

I’ll attempt in this week’s column to give some background info, precautions, regulations, suggestions and the white-tailed deer’s future.

CWD is a fatal disease that affects the cervids: mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, reindeer, black-tailed deer, etc. It is found in 36 of our states, two Canadian provinces and in Scandinavia.

The first case was discovered in a research lab in Colorado in the 1960s. In 1981, the first case of CWD was found in a wild mule deer. CWD has now been confirmed in 19 of our state’s counties. The states with the highest number of cases of CWD include: Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Wisconsin and Arkansas. Also, there are many cases in Illinois, Virginia and West Virginia, Maryland, Missouri and, unfortunately, Pennsylvania.

Once an animal contracts CWD, it can take 12, 18 or up to 24 months for symptoms to appear. According to Andrea, the last three or four months the deer will begin to show the telltale sign, which include dramatic weight loss, stumbling, drooling, listlessness and then death.

CWD is not a virus or bacteria that can be treated. What happens is that all mammals have in their proteins things called prions (pronounced pree-ons). But somehow, in the cervids, some of these proteins get twisted, and more and more get misshaped, and generally this is in the brain. When the number of twisted prions keep increasing there, it basically leaves holes in the brain.

After being “infected” with CWD the deer may appear normal. Eventually, as per Andrea, some subtle things start happening. The deer may react slower to a predator or less likely to avoid a vehicle traveling toward it, etc.

The Game Commission has established disease management areas, or DMAs, to help track and study the incidences and spread of CWD. Much of Schuylkill County, all of Carbon County west of the turnpike and south of Interstate 80, and much of Luzerne County are now included in DMA 9.

Here are some things you need to know. If in this area, or any other area, you see symptoms like I mentioned earlier, call 1-833-PGC-Wild and report the location as precisely as possible.

If you harvest a deer in this area, they are asking you to voluntarily drop off the deer’s head in one of the head collection bins found scattered in the region. To get exact locations, go to the Game Commission website, where you will find a PDF listing those.

Hunters wishing to keep the antlers of their buck can have the skull plate removed.

In fact, the bins are similar to used clothing drop-off bins, so the head with attached antlers would probably not fit. To save the antlers, it is best to clean up any brain matter from it. The recommendation is to even clean off your hunting knives/tools in 40% bleach and water solution for 15 minutes. Note it has always been suggested that successful hunters use latex gloves to field process their animals, and this applies to CWD potential deer, of course.

The two counties in Pennsylvania with the highest instances of CWD are Bedford and Fulton counties. However, 36 counties now have recorded cases.

There was a harvested buck taken near Weatherly that tested positive, which is the reason much of Carbon County is now in DMA 9. A number of deer were culled from that area after the season and, fortunately, no traces of CWD were found in their lymph nodes. (That’s where the biologists look for the CWD prions.)

The bad news: I’ve always had a passion for birding and really enjoy observing and photographing “whitetails.” It is unfortunate that since there is no cure or vaccine or any method to stop this disease that it will certainly have an effect on deer numbers.

Please know that the prions can remain in the soil from deer droppings and urine or from the carcass of a diseased animal for possibly up to 10 years. Close contact among deer quickly spreads CWD.

It is now illegal to feed deer, which causes them to concentrate and more likely to spread the prions in any DMA. It is not illegal to transport a deer you harvested in Schuylkill County to your home in Kunkletown, for instance. But it is highly recommended that you take your deer to a cooperating processor who is trained in disposing of the remains of the carcass after butchering.

Road killed deer, all harvested elk in Pennsylvania, and the heads dropped off in the bins will be tested for CWD. The Game Commission is working diligently to help curtail the spread.

I ended my conversation with Andrea with this question: Have the states with the highest instances of CWD seen a reduction in deer herd size? The answer: yes. Time will tell how much of our 1.5 million herd of whitetails will be reduced.

Please look at the Game Commission website for more information and updates that will surely be coming. If we heed the suggestions, maybe we can all help slow the spread of this fatal deer and elk disease.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: True or False. It appears that hot spots for CWD are in captive deer breeding areas, and is it true that the Pennsylvania Game Commission regulates those facilities?

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: As of Oct. 20, I still saw tree swallows migrating through this area. The other swallow species have already migrated much earlier and much farther south.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com