PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Social media pages continue to glare with photos of dead or dying deer on both sides of the Ohio River. An outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) has been spreading throughout the mid-Ohio Valley since early to mid-August. The virus, which is often fatal in whitetail deer, is spread by a small, biting midge or fly. Those flies will die in the first frost, but until then, the mortality continues.
Indications are the situation is much worse on the Ohio side of the river where the Ohio DNR is in the public comment period of a proposal to reduce the bag limit for whitetail deer from three to two in Athens, Washington, and Meigs County for the upcoming hunting season. According to an Ohio DNR Press Release, If approved by the Ohio Wildlife Council, the proposed bag limit reduction would take effect on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 coinciding with opening day of the seven-day deer gun season. The proposed bag limit would remain in place until the close of the 2025-26 deer hunting season on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. The Ohio Wildlife Council heard the proposal during a recent emergency meeting in Athens, Ohio.
The mortality from EHD is also hitting West Virginia, but Ethan Barton, Wildlife Disease Specialist for the DNR maintains while a significant outbreak, there have been equally severe outbreaks in years prior.
“Outbreaks of EHD we’ve had in the past, and this certainly is not anything unprecedented, did not biologically speaking, jeopardize the long term sustainability of whitetail deer populations,” Barton told MetroNews.
He added, West Virginia was not considering any change to the bag limits for the upcoming season.
“We’re doing our best to follow the data and follow the science that’s there. At present, we do not have any plans to change deer season. Of course, we’ll continue to monitor the situation and what’s going on with the deer population into the future,” he said.
The outbreak was first noticed in West Virginia in a few deer in early August in Wood, Jackson, and Ritchie Counties. Since then the outbreak has spread to much of the mid-Ohio River Valley and into parts of western West Virginia. The counties where EHD documented mortality has occurred are Calhoun, Doddridge, Harrison, Kanawha, Jackson, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Pleasants, Putnam, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tyler, Wirt, and Wood Counties.
The archery hunting season opens up this weekend in West Virginia. Barton said he would not be surprised to see the harvest for this fall down in that region of the state, but also added that would have been the case regardless of the EHD outbreak. The 2025 Mast Survey revealed an abundant acorn crop all across the state, which Barton noted would already cause the kill to be lower because deer don’t have to wander from a particular area in search of food.
He did however acknowledge EHD may play a role in a further harvest reduction.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see the harvest down in some of those counties along the Ohio River where people are very familiar with what’s going on, to drop even further. People are either just not going to go hunting or they’re going to be very selective in what they take off their property,” said Barton.
As cooler weather moves in the number of cases will drop. Those infected deer which survive will build some limited immunity to future outbreaks.
“EHD will continue until we have a hard frost. We haven’t had a hard frost yet. I’m hoping we have one soon,” he said.