NEW DISEASE IN DEER

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 3

NEW DISEASE IN DEER

Observations By Stalkers t New Zealand Press Associattoni DUNEDIN, January 19. An unidentified disease is believed to be killing off deer in south-west Fiordland. Two experienced Dunedin deerstalkers, Messrs P. M. Morrison and A. Green, back from three weeks in the area, said today that 75 per cent, of deer in the area appeared hopelessly affected by the disease. The deer are to be found in the comparatively unknown part of the Fiordland National Park surrounding Lake Mike, which is about five miles inland south-east of Mount Edgecumbe near Dusky Sound. Mr Morrison described the disease as affecting, in most cases, the entire animal. He sighted the first diseased deer on December 27 and this entry was made in his diary: “Shot after five miles tramping inland from Lake Mike, the only deer we saw. The stag appeared to be suffering from some skin disease. The skin was minus all its fur. except for a little along its backbone. The hair was so short .that it looked as though a pair of barber’s clippers had been over it.

“The legs of the deer were covered with bluish pimples with white heads about the size of a three-inch nail. Around the fetlocks were raw sores about the size of a threepence.”

Mr Morrison said he later saw many more deer affected with the disease. He and Mr Green found a calf’s leg which was affected with the disease and it looked as though it had dropped from a living animal.