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PA Game Commission to announce new Chronic Wasting Disease management area in Lancaster County

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission Wednesday afternoon will announce  a new Chronic Wasting Disease management area that will affect northern L...
chronic wasting disease

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission Wednesday afternoon will announce  a new Chronic Wasting Disease management area that will affect northern Lancaster County, as well as parts of Lebanon and Berks counties.

The announcement will be held at 1 p.m.

The management zone is expected to be within a 10-mile radius of Greenville Whitetails, a private deer farm located near Denver in West Cocalico Township, Lancaster County.

So far, two deer from the farm have been found to have Chronic Wasting Disease, an always-lethal, highly contagious disease that has threatened wild deer populations in 23 states.

More deer at the deer farm are likely infected, Game Commission officials have said.

To date, 98 free-ranging deer have been found in Pennsylvania deer in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton and Clearfield counties.

This will be the fourth CWD deer-management area the Game Commission has created since CWD was found on an Adams County deer farm in 2012. One of the management areas has since been dissolved since no wild deer have been found with the disease.

Hunters within new management area in Lancaster, Berks and Lebanon counties will not be able to transport whole deer they shoot within the zone to a butcher or anywhere else outside the zone. And deer shot will be tested for CWD.

In addition, hunters will not be allowed to use urine-based cover scents for hunting.

For the general public, feeding deer will be prohibited because the disease is spread by bodily fluids and game managers want to avoid congregating deer.

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