The United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that there is an abundance of deer in Michigan that have COVID-19 antibodies.
The National Wildlife Federation Outdoors took to Twitter to announce the findings.
“A spread of COVID-19 in deer across the country has been investigating what it may mean for hunters’ health. An August @USDA study found coronavirus antibodies in deer across four states: Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania,” the National Wildlife Federation Outdoors wrote.
Michigan’s firearms hunting season started on Nov. 15 in what amounts to an unofficial state holiday.
The USDA’s study focused on a cluster of Michigan deer, which revealed that two thirds of the group had been exposed to COVID-19.
“I’m not aware of any tests for COVID that are available to the consumer,” Mark LaBarbera, executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation said. “I don’t know many people who are concerned about it at this time. We just want to make sure we keep an eye on it.”
Whether the deer were exposed to the disease by people or other animals is unknown to the researchers within the organization.
The USDA tested 481 deer from January 2020 through March 2021 in deer found in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The Michigan deer, which accounted for 113 deer, had two-thirds of the group, which was news to some hunters.
“Actually haven’t heard anything. The DNR was here earlier this morning, and said nothing about it. He’ll be back tomorrow, they’ll be back tomorrow for their random gathering of heads to test them for things,” Phil Milligan of Milligan Meat Processing told WLNS.
Hunter Trent Hurd told WLNS that it was somewhat expected that the virus would spread and they would have to find a way to deal with it.
“With this COVID thing going around, it’s going to spread to everything. You know it’s something new and we’ll have to figure it out,” Hurd said.
