PHILADELPHIA - Thousands of hunters who took to Pennsylvania's woods and fields for the archery antlered deer season opener last Saturday may have unintentionally poisoned the state's deer herd.
Walt Cottrell sounded the alarm loud and clear on Monday morning during the opening session of the two-day quarterly meetings of the Pennsylvania Game Commission at the Holiday Inn near the Sports Complex.
Cottrell, the Wildlife Veterinarian for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, gave a presentation on Chronic Wasting Disease, a disease that affects members of the Cervidae family, which includes deer and elk.
The always fatal disease of the nervous system causes wasting of the body and decreases lifespan in cervids, and has been found as close to the Pennsylvania border as Hampshire County in West Virginia, which is 25 miles away, and Oneida County in New York, which is 80 miles from the border.
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