Big Deer Blog

Our friend Danny sent us these trail-cam photos of a young Maryland buck with what hunters commonly call warts. The technical name for these growths: cutaneous fibromas. They are smooth, black to gray hairless tumors of the skin caused by a virus, which is thought to be transmitted to deer by biting insects, just as blue tongue is transmitted. Warts may show as single, multiple, or in clumps; they can vary from 1/2 to 8 inches in diameter. They can be found anywhere on a deer, but are most common on the head, neck, and shoulders. The growths rarely extend below the hide of a deer. When the skin from a deer with warts is removed there is typically no [...]

Do you live, hunt deer and maybe farm in the Deep South, on ground where hogs are out of control? Then you’ll be interested in this: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)announced today it is offering $75 million in funding for the eradication and control of feral swine through the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program (FSCP) in a joint effort between USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The 2018 Farm Bill included this new pilot program to help address the threat that feral swine pose to agriculture, ecosystems and human and animal health. NRCS will direct up to $33.75 million of the allocated FSCP funds toward partnership efforts to work [...]