Mysterious death of endangered Chinese deer caused by bacteria

The deaths of 15 milu deer, or Pere David's deer, at a nature reserve in north China's Hebei Province were caused by bacteria-induced disease, reserve authorities said Wednesday.

Fifteen out of 20 milu deer in the Luanhe Upper River National Nature Reserve have died since last August. Most of them were found to have swollen waists and blood on their mouths and anuses. Unable to figure out the cause of death, the reserve sent samples from their bodies to animal quarantine authorities in Beijing for research.

Wang Guizhong, an official with the reserve's management bureau, said experts in Beijing determined that the deer were killed by an epidemic caused by the spread of Clostridium welchii. The disease is common to herbivores, and toxins created by the bacteria can cause organ bleeding.

The reserve disinfected the animals' drinking water and vaccinated the five surviving deer. The remaining deer are in good health.

The milu is a species of deer unique to China. The deer's summer coat is reddish tan in color and becomes dark gray and wooly in winter.

Overhunting and loss of habitat led to the near extinction of the species in the early 20th century in China. The species was reintroduced to China from Britain in the 1980s. Endi