MARQUETTE -- A fatal disease affecting deer could send downstate hunters to the Upper Peninsula.
The disease, called Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, is spread by flies called midges. It normally occurs in hot, dry climates.
With this summer's high temps and low rainfall, deer in southern Michigan came down with the disease, but officials say the Upper Peninsula is safe for now.
"It's certainly possible. We'd have to see a lot more severe drought in the U.P. than what we've had in the past few years in order to see something like EHD up here, but is it possible? Sure," said Debbie Munson Badini of the Department of Natural Resources. "But thankfully we've not seen it even in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula, so for it to come all the way to the U.P. I think it will be a while."
A hard frost kills off the midges that spread EHD. Officials said that Upper Michigan's colder temperatures should be enough to keep deer populations safe.
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