New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is tracking suspected cases of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, or EHD, in deer in Rockland and other Hudson Valley counties. EHD virus is typically a fatal disease for deer that is transmitted by biting midges, small insects sometimes called no-see-ums or ‘punkies.’ The disease is not spread from deer to deer and humans cannot be infected by deer or bites from midges. There have already been confirmed cases on Long Island and upstate in Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, and Ulster counties. Last year at this time, a large EHD outbreak centered in Putnam and Orange counties killed around 1,500 deer.