THE Forestry Commission has introduced measures to try to ensure that the disease is not passed on from deer in its North-East woods.
Permits for shooting deer, which, along with sheep and cattle, can contract the disease, have been suspended for four weeks.
There will also be no culling of deer in commission woodlands, which include Kielder in Northumberland, Chopwell, in Tyne and Wear and Hamsterley, in County Durham.
A commission spokesman said there were no published cases of infected deer during the last outbreak in 1967.
He said: "We still can't be complacent at a time like this. Our rangers have been told to be extra-vigilant and to be on the alert for any lame deer they may spot."
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