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The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) announced on Wednesday, Sept. 28, that the first positive case this year came from a deer found in the Litchfield County town of Goshen.
A second deer was also confirmed to have the disease after it was found on a property in Kent, DEEP said. Five additional dead deer were also found on that property.
The third positive case was confirmed in a deer from a property in the Middlesex County town of East Haddam, where three other deer have also been found dead, officials reported.
"Reports to DEEP of dead deer in multiple other towns, mainly in the northwest and southeast of the state, fit the description of animals affected by the disease," officials said.
The disease typically kills deer within one to three days of infection, officials said.
It's transmitted by biting midges, DEEP said.
Other species, including mule deer and elk, have also been documented with the disease in other states.
The disease does not infect humans and rarely causes illness in domestic animals, such as cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, and cats, DEEP said.
"There has not been a significant negative impact on the long-term health of deer herds in states where the disease has been detected because only localized pockets of animals tend to be infected within a geographic area," DEEP reported.
The DEEP Wildlife Division asked anyone who sees a deer that appears emaciated, behaves strangely, or is lying dead along the edge of waterbodies to report the information to Andrew.labonte@ct.gov or call 860-418-5921.
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