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Hunters Beware: Deer Can Give People Tuberculosis

US Fish and Wildlife Service

The Centers for Disease Control announced last week that people can get a rare form of tuberculosis from deer.

According to WebMD, bovine tuberculosis is a rare type of the infection that was discovered in a 77-year-old Michigan hunter, who it is believed got sick by inhaling the germ while removing a dead deer’s infected organs.

The man had regularly hunted and field-dressed deer in the area during the past 20 years. He had been hunting in an area where two other hunters were infected more than 15 years ago.

Bovine tuberculosis makes up under 2 percent of all tuberculosis cases in the U.S. Although mostly eliminated in cattle, it's still found in wild bison, elk and deer, the CDC said.

Symptoms include severe coughfeverweight losschest pain.

According to the CDC, the treatment is antibiotics.

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