Indiana Department of Natural Resourcescontinues to search for six ear-tagged deer in Jackson County and neighboring Bartholomew, Jennings and Scott counties.
Those deer are among the 20 that escaped from a captive cervid facility — or deer farm — in 2012, a spokesman with the state Department of Natural Resources said Friday.
“Of the six, one is a buck, which had a yellow ear tag with the No. 47,” Phil Bloom said.
Bloom said the buck is the only one of the six missing deer imported from a site in Pennsylvania where deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
“He has been exposed to it, but that doesn’t mean he has chronic wasting disease,” Bloom said. “There is no live test for chronic wasting disease. That can’t be determined until the deer is dead and tissue has been tested.”
Bloom said the other five deer that remain free are classified as exposed to chronic wasting disease through their association with the buck.
Of particular interest are any deer with a yellow ear tag bearing the prefix “IN 764” followed by another four numbers or any deer with a yellow ear tag and two numbers on it.
Natural Resources staff will assist in taking the deer carcass to Purdue University for testing at the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.
Of the remaining 20 that escaped from the deer farm, the owner recaptured 11 shortly after the escape.
The location and ownership of the deer farm have not been released, based on guidelines of the Indiana Board of Animal Health, but the owner is cooperating, Bloom said.
The escape occurred after a tree fell on a fence at the deer farm, Bloom said.
Of the remaining nine deer that escaped, one was struck and killed by a vehicle, a second was shot and killed by a bow hunter during archery season and a third was killed during a special deer hunting session the first weekend of January, Bloom said.
The owner of the farm continues to help search for the remaining six and has been cooperative with the state, Bloom said.
State officials believe the buck is still alive because people have reported seeing it, Bloom said.
“Although it is conceivable it may have been killed,” he said.
Hunters also may have killed some of the five missing deer and just not reported their deaths to the state as required, Bloom said.
Bloom said there are no special hunting seasons planned to find the remaining deer.
“We’re making an all-out effort to find the deer,” Bloom said.
Local hunter Chuck Brenner of Freetown said the state is being too complacent about an issue that could have long-range effects on the deer population, however.
“I’m not just a hunter,” Brenner said. “I’m a conservationist. We need to manage our herds.”
Brenner said chronic wasting disease could wipe out herds and cost the state millions of dollars down the road.
“We should hunt them down and find them whether it’s deer season or not,” Brenner said.
He said there hasn’t been much publicity about the missing deer and that local hunters could help with the search.
“They need to ask the local hunters for help,” Brenner said. “They could put out trail cameras. If nothing else, the state could put a bounty on them.”
Brenner said the deer are clearly marked and there could be a special hunt just for the six deer that are ear-tagged.
Bloom said the state wants to make sure that the deer are tracked down, tested and determined if they’ve been exposed to chronic wasting disease.
“It could have some far-reaching ramifications,” he said.
So far the disease has never been found in Indiana, which has been testing for the disease since 2002. More than 10,000 deer killed during hunts or by vehicles have been tested and the disease has not been detected, Bloom said.
The tags on those missing deer are expected to tell officials whether the animals have any possible connection with a captive facility in Pennsylvania where chronic wasting disease was confirmed this winter, Bloom said. That report made Pennsylvania the 23rd state in which it has been found.
Cervid or wild game farms in Indiana can raise deer, elk and moose for several reasons, Bloom said. The animals can be processed at a slaughterhouse and sold as meat, sold for pets or sold to high-fenced hunting reserves.