It's deer hunting season here in New York and environmental officials are warning of diseases those outdoors should be aware of. It's called Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease or more commonly known as EHD.

It's not harmful to humans, but is carried by an insect called a midge. This disease typically effects deer in southern states every year, but this is just the fourth time an outbreak has been recorded in the northeast.

And this is the most severe outbreak since the first one was reported in 2007. So far, EHD has killed nearly two thousand deer statewide this year.

"So it's a hemorrhagic disease, which means their blood vessels burst in their organs, in their soft tissues and so deer become feverish, they become dehydrated, and they often seek out water, which is where most people find them when they're dead," Jeremy Hurst, wildlife biologist, said.

The DEC says that they've gotten reports of this disease in more than 20 counties in the Hudson Valley, Capital Region and Central New York.

The DEC says once a deer is infected with EHD, it only takes 36 hours for it to die.

If you find a dead deer or come across a deer that appears to be sick, the DEC recommends to not eat the animal and to report it.

The positive news is that EHD will only affect the deer population in New York temporarily. They expect the disease to halt once frost kills the midges.

Now, another disease that isn't in New York, called Chronic Wasting Disease, has officials hoping it stays that way. CWD, unlike EHD, is permanent and has a lasting effect on deer and other species.

"The most likely avenue of CWD introduction is inadvertently by hunters, who hunt out of state where CWD might be present, bringing back an animal they may have harvested to New York,” Hurst said. “So we have recently prohibited that action. You may not bring any deer, moose, elk, caribou from anywhere outside of New York, into New York."

According to the CDC, there is no data to show that CWD can be transmitted to humans. As of now, 25 states across the country have seen cases of the disease.