Studies on the Blood of White-Tailed Deer

Abstract

to several species including man there tends to be a similarity in symptoms and in pathology although this is not always true. The following discussion deals with a condition in a game animal which in one aspect resembles a rather serious disease in man. Since 1910 when Herrick (1) described elongated and sickleshaped cells in a case of severe anemia in a Negro, a considerable literature has accumulated on the subject of sickle-cell anemia in man. For a time it was thought that this condition was confined to negroes and that it was always associated with anemia. It is now known, however, that apparently healthy people of both the Negro and Caucasian races may have sickle cells in their blood. Surveys show incidence of about 6%. O'Roke (2) has recently described a comparable condition in deer, mainly rom young animals found dead in winter yards in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His principal conclusion was that it might be a definite, if obscure, factor in the heavy losses among deer in Michigan observed during the past few years. He ventured the opinion also that the condition may be hereditary, a suggestion based on the fact that it was not revealed in a large number of examinations of a captive and rather highly inbred deer herd. During the past two years efforts have been made by the Game Division of the Michigan Department of Conervation further to investigate the situation. Observations were made on numerous captive animals and studies were carried on of blood smears from ani als found dead in the wild and from deer shot by hunters. Red blood-cell counts and hemoglobin determinations were made at intervals from about twenty animals. Sickle cells were found in blood smears taken from a few young fawns, which were later periodically subjected to blood examinations. These animals have been under observation for the past two