The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that chronic wasting disease was not detected in a deer that escaped from an unlicensed deer farm in Huntington County.
The deer, known by its farm tag "Purple 4," was linked to the Straban Township deer farm where Pennsylvania's first cases of chronic wasting disease were found.
"Purple 4" escaped from a location in Alexandria, Pa. and was shot by a hunter last month and tested at the Pennsylvania State Veterinary Laboratory.
The deer known as "Pink 23," which had escaped the Straban Township pen as officials were trying to kill all of the deer there and have them tested for chronic wasting disease, tested negative for the disease earlier this week.
Last week, the department confirmed that Chronic Wasting Disease was not found in another deer known by its farm tag as "Pink 23," also part of the original herd.
Although tests for chronic wasting disease (CWD) came back negative for the escaped deer, it doesn't necessarily mean the deer hadn't picked up the disease from the infected deer with which they had been linked. CWD has an 18- to 24-month incubation period and symptoms might not show for up to 16 months after infection.