Dozens of white-tailed deer in Montana have died of a mysterious ailment which is suspected to be epizootic hemorrhagic disease. The Great Falls Tribune has a brief item. Check out this item on ProMed-mail for a helpful reference to the no-see-ums that transmit the disease.

[ADDITION: The day after this was posted, the state of New Jersey announced epizootic hemorrhagic disease in deer in that state. You can read the press release here.]

A feral hog in Midland County, Michigan has tested positive for pseudorabies. Read the article on Michigan Live, here. Sounds ridiculously scary until you find out that porcine pseudorabies has nothing to do with rabies. It’s a herpes virus, and it doesn’t effect humans, but it does kill dogs and other animals, wild and domestic. Once again, ProMed-mail has the needed explanation. Read it here.

Also in the catagory of “needed explanations” and “wildlife disease” is a recent report in the Los Angeles Times of the “first U.S. transmission” of rabies linked to a vampire bat. Uh, no. Even the article says the man was bitten by a vampire bat in Mexico, then traveled to the U.S. Unfortunately, the story was also picked up on the gossip site Gawker.com. Here’s the LA Times story. And here’s a debunking from a biology professor at Long Island University

Finally, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently launched a new Web site on chronic wasting disease, aimed at hunters. Find the Web site at http://www.knowcwd.com/ And find an article about the Web site and Wisconsin’s “Know CWD” campaign in the Houston Chronicle.

There were just no pretty pictures for this one. Not even a nice picture of a virus available.