Sick deer are dying in Maryland and Virginia. Here’s what to know.

The call came in late August to a wildlife hotline: a dead deer near a pond close to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Justin Folks, a deer project leader for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, went to investigate. There were no signs it had been hit by a vehicle or poached. He took tissue samples from its spleen and sent it to a lab in Georgia. A week later, a positive test confirmed his suspicions: It was epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD).