Lice’s origins Asia or Africa

PORTLAND – A type of lice which has been decimating blacktail deer herds in Western Oregon and Washington comes from Asia or Africa, a new study has found.

Researchers at Oregon State University say the parasite could infect mule deer herds in Eastern Oregon.

The study’s finding provides partial answers to two of the most puzzling questions surrounding the nasty louse that first showed up in Washington in 1995: Where did it come from, and how far will it go?

If it’s able to jump across the Cascade Range and survive the colder Eastern Oregon climate, the parasite could prove deadly for mule deer, prized by hunters and wildlife enthusiasts.

“The bottom line is, it’s not from here, but we’re stuck with them now,” Bruce Coblentz, a professor of wildlife biology at Oregon State, told The Oregonian.

The parasite – similar to the lice found on dogs – is especially harsh on deer, irritating their skin until they scratch their hair out. The bare spots make it impossible for the deer to keep warm. Like birds tarred in an oil spill, they die of exposure.

Dead blacktail deer were found next to houses where they struggled to stay warm beneath air vents.

“It’s like you being sent outside in winter without any clothes on,” Coblentz said of the condition, known as hair-loss syndrome.

A scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture identified the lice as an unknown species from the genus Damalinia and subgenus Cervicola. It belongs to a family of lice known to prey on deer and antelope on Asia and in Africa.

Little else is known about the species infecting Oregon deer, however.

Scientists are not sure where it came from and how it got here.

One of the many mysteries surrounding the lice is its reproductive cycle.

The lice essentially disappear from the deer halfway through the summer, only to reappear by the thousands during the winter. Researchers say they don’t lay eggs fast enough to multiply so rapidly. That means they’re surviving somewhere else.

“There is some reservoir on the animal or off the animal, but we haven’t a clue where,” Coblentz said.

And as if to underline how little the team of scientists really know, there’s also this puzzling fact: Coblentz and his team have not yet found a male louse.