Indiana lowers deer kill limits in 7 counties amid virus outbreak

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A virus spread by gnats has caused a rise in sick and dead deer, leading the Indiana Department of Indiana Natural Resources to reduce the number of deer each hunter can legally kill during the current season in selected counties.

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, better known by the acronym EHD among hunters, has a high mortality rate, though not all infected deer become sick or die. Deer that survive gain immunity. The disease does not affect humans. The reduction in hunters’ kills, called antlerless bag limits, aims to mitigate the impact of EHD on the deer population in the southern half of Indiana, although the disease has been found statewide.

As of Wednesday, Natural Resources has received and 1,982 EHD reports, involving 1,904 dead and 78 sick deer, from 70 counties.

Twenty-eight counties had 30 or more reports of dead and sick deer, according to data reported to Natural Resources and recorded on its website: Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Decatur, Dubois, Elkhart, Franklin, Greene, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Orange, Scott, Switzerland, Vermillion, Vigo and Washington.

On Wednesday, Natural Resources reduced the antlerless bag limits for deer in seven southern Indiana counties due to an outbreak of EHD. For the 2025-2026 hunting season, Jennings County’s antlerless bag limit has been reduced from four to two deer. Jackson, Scott, and Jefferson counties have seen their limits reduced from four to three deer. Bartholomew, Martin, and Switzerland counties have had their limits reduced from three to two deer.

The statewide antlerless bag limit remains at six deer, and changes to the county limits will not affect Deer Reduction Zones, which let hunters harvest deer in defined urban areas and along portions of Indiana highways, in addition to statewide bag limits.

Natural resources announced in September that no deer hunts would happen in state parks in 2025. In 2024, over 6,700 Hoosier hunters hunted and harvested over 1,500 deer from state parks while they were closed for hunting.

DNR biologists plan to evaluate the effects of EHD this winter and propose any necessary changes for the 2026-2027 hunting season.

EHD can only be diagnosed in a laboratory using blood and internal tissues. Indiana DNR receives reports through an online system and samples deer in the field to confirm the presence of EHD.

• From Indiana Department of Natural Resources: 2025-2026 hunting and trapping seasons

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