Florida wildlife officials discover second case of ‘zombie deer disease’ in state

Experts are enforcing emergency measures to prevent the spread of the highly contagious neurodegenerative disease

Wildlife officials in Florida have discovered only the second case in the state of a deadly infection known colloquially as zombie deer disease", and are enforcing emergency measures to try to prevent a spread.

The highly contagious chronic wasting disease (CWD) was found during routine screening in the carcass of a young white-tailed doe that was struck by a vehicle in Holmes county, close to the Alabama border, early last month. The only previous recorded instance in Florida was in a four-year-old doe killed about a mile away in June 2023.