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Hunters taking to the woods in southern Michigan for firearm deer season may find fewer deer as a result of a disease that is killing off the herd, officials with the Department of Natural Resources said.

Russ Mason, wildlife chief for the DNR, said hunters are being asked to report any deer who have died due to epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), a virus passed via a midge or fly. Last year, cases were only reported in a few counties. This year, however, cases were reported in 30 counties.

Mason said last year's mild winter and excessively hot and dry summer has led to an increase in the virus, especially in southern Michigan. The DNR has even changed restrictions this deer season due to the disease. On private land in part of southern Michigan, a hunter is only permitted to have five antlerless licenses instead of the usual 10; on public land a hunter will be permitted two of the same license as opposed to the usual four.

"We are asking hunters to exercise restraint where EHD has had a serious effect," said Mason.

The deer die-offs are not being reported in any one concentrated area.

"It's in pockets," Mason said, adding that in some areas the herd has been thinned by 50 percent, while a nearby area won't have any deaths.

Jackson and western Washtenaw County have been especially hard hit, officials said. Lynn Mida discovered two deer that had died from EHD on his six-acres in Lyndon Township.

In late September, Mida recalled finding a doe and a buck on his property that had perished due to EHD. He said the deer population in Jackson County has been especially devastated.

"The deer numbers are down from where they used to be," he said.

Still, Mida and his 22-year-old son, Erik, were planning on being out on the property at 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning for the opener.

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Deer season: DNR restricts permits, expects killer virus EHD to hamper hunt in southern Michigan

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A Bay Area lab has become an epicenter in the struggle to keep one step ahead of dangerous bugs. UCSF's Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center tracks viruses ranging from the common to the deadly.

Gesturing to a pickle shaped object on a computer screen, UCSF virologist Dr. Charles Chiu explained, "The spikes are what binds to cells, allowing it to enter cells."

For Chiu, the object on the screen was just one more mysterious killer on an ever-changing battlefield. His team recently helped identify the new virus which surfaced in the African nation of Congo. He says it's related to rabies, but produces symptoms more similar to Ebola.

In Chiu's lab at UCSF, researchers track viral outbreaks from around the country and the world in part, to stay a step ahead of the diseases that could ultimately be heading our way. And this year, there's been no shortage of candidates; from a new version of the SARS Virus in Europe, to a West Nile outbreak in Texas, to the sudden appearance of hantavirus at Yosemite.

"It's been crazy," Chiu said. "I think a major focus of my lab is to look for emerging viruses that can cross the species barrier and basically jump from animals to humans."

The lab has also become an epicenter in the study of viruses. Using powerful new technology, the lab crunches DNA and reconstructs genomes, hoping to spot new mutations that allow viruses to evolve into dangerous new variations including bird flu, known as H5N1.

"And that's really been the big worry about viruses, influenza viruses, especially H5N1, in that you could have a highly pathogenic virus that jumps into a host species, say humans, and then if it spreads efficiently, tgen it can be the cause of a very severe and deadly pandemic," Chiu explained.

Chiu says one current project could have immediate impact closer to home. His team is now sequencing the genes in the hantavirus strain that infected patients at Yosemite, trying to determine if there's been any evolutionary change that would help explain why the outbreak was so virulent.

As for what's ahead, he says that is anyone's guess. "Things have been so surprising I think, that I'm basically ready for nature to give me another one," Chiu said. "I'm waiting for another curve ball."

In the meantime, Chiu's team is working on new tests to diagnose Lyme disease.

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UCSF lab tracks viral outbreaks around the world

Before Tuesday John McAfee was best known for pioneering anti-virus software at a company that bore his name.

But now McAfee is regarded as the prime suspect in the murder of his neighbour on a Belize island where he moved following the sale of his company to Intel.

In an interview with Wired.com McAfee denied any involvement in the murder and suggested that the killer may actually have been looking for him.

McAfee, 67, had been involved with a running feud with his neighbour Gregory Faull, 52, another expat who lived next door to the anti-virus pioneer on Ambergris Caye, an island off the coast of Belize. Faull's body was found Sunday in his home with a single gunshot [wound] to his head.

Belize police [say McAfee] is wanted for questioning in the case, Wired reported.

McAfee, who has had numerous run-ins with the Belize police over drugs and guns, told Wired that local authorities had a vendetta against him and that [he] eluded police by burying himself in the sand, using a cardboard box to breathe, when they came looking for him following the murder.

"It was extraordinarily uncomfortable," he told Wired. "But they will kill me if they find me."

Police told Wired that "there was absolutely no truth in McAfee's allegations. "This guy amazes me every day. We don't have anything personal against Mr McAfee," Mark Vidal, the head of Belize's anti-drug unit said.

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Who Is John McAfee; and Is He Innocent?

A grand jury has voted a throw-away-the-key indictment charging first-degree murder against Yoselyn Ortega, the nanny accused in the bathtub slashing deaths of two young Upper West Side children under her care.

The rare charge brought only 27 times in New York in 2011 carries a maximum sentence of life without parole. It is reserved for the most heinous homicides, including serial killings, the killings of judges and cops, and killings deemed cruel and wanton.

In Ortegas case, the grand jury found the charge is warranted because there were two victims, Lucia and Leo Krim, according to a copy of the indictment filed publicly today. The girl was 6 years old; the boy was 2.

Ortega has remained at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell since Oct. 25, when the children were found bleeding to death in the bathtub of their West 75th Street apartment by their mother, Marina Krim. Ortega had slashed herself in the throat.

The nanny had been suffering mental and financial difficulties, and told cops that she resented the Krim family for asking her to do an extra five hours a week of housework.

No date has yet been set for Ortega to be arraigned on the indictment, which charges her with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. A call to Ortegas lawyer, Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, was not returned.

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Murder 1 vs. ‘killer’ nanny

A grand jury has voted a throw-away-the-key indictment -- charging first degree murder -- against Yoselyn Ortega, the nanny accused in the bathtub slashing deaths of two young Upper West Side children under her care.

The rare charge -- brought only 27 times in all of New York in 2011, according to state stats -- carries the maximum sentence of life without parole, meaning zero chance of daylight.

It is reserved for the most heinous homicides, including serial killings, the killings of judges and cops, and killings deemed cruel and wanton.

In Ortega's case, the grand jury found the charge is warranted because there were two victims, Lucia and Leo Krim, according to a copy of the indictment filed publicly today. The girl was 6 years old; the boy was 2.

Yoselyn Ortega, accused of murder.

Ortega has remained at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell since Oct. 25, when the children were found bleeding to death in the bathtub of their W. 75th Street apartment by their mother, Marina Krim. Ortega had slashed her own self in the throat.

Marina Krim's surviving child, 3-year-old Nessie, had accompanied her mom home to their house of horrors and was physically unharmed.

The nanny had been suffering mental and financial difficulties, and told cops that she resented the Krim family for asking her to do an extra five hours a week of housework.

No date has yet been set for Ortega to be arraigned on the indictment, which charges her with two counts of murder one and two counts of murder two. A call to Ortega's lawyer, Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, was not returned.

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'Killer' nanny accused in kids' bathtub slashing deaths hit with throw-away-the-key indictment