CWD To Eat Or Not To Eat

[fmyth]

We have CWD in our local counties here in Illinois. We're required to check our firearm season deer in person and they ask if they can sample. Generally everything gets sampled except for bucks that will be shoulder mounted since they cut the neck. For archery season they have drop boxes where you can throw heads to have them checked.

I've never had a positive gun deer and I haven't had any archery ones checked yet. If I ended up with a positive result I wouldn't eat it nor would I feed it to my family.

If you want to have your B.O.A.L. tested you could cape it out before they cut out the lymph nodes. You could also cut the lymph nodes and sent them in for testing yourself. It's pretty simple and there are many videos on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cwd+testing

 

[hunt1up]

If you want to have your B.O.A.L. tested you could cape it out before they cut out the lymph nodes. You could also cut the lymph nodes and sent them in for testing yourself. It's pretty simple and there are many videos on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cwd+testing

For sure. I think it tends to come down to laziness and convenience when it comes check station time. I'll probably start doing that more often. I don't get overly concerned since the positivity rate is about 1%, but I do know people who have gotten a positive return. So it's only a matter of time.

 

[sram9102]

I can't see the logic behind hunting a CWD positive area and going into it with aversion to eating it... Better throw away coolers, knives, SxS, truck, pack, etc. if your afraid of it.

 

[Short Track]

I hunted Elk in a CDW area. No one mentions it, not the outfitter, not the butcher, no one. Like it doesn't exist. I just read about it in a CO magazine.

 

[z987k]

I would not eat it. That's just me.

Accidentally eating a diseased deer is one thing but I'm not into deliberately exposing myself to stuff like that. All you have to do is be sensitive to the "bug" and you could have life-long issues. No thanks.

That's not how CWD works. It's not a virus or bacteria. There is no bug. A deer has it or they don't.

And if you were that unlucky sob in which it did make the jump to humans in you, it's not going to give you life long issues. It's going to kill you. I guess it'll give you issues for the rest of your much shortened life.

 

[Hoosker Doo]

I'm also in Wyoming and my wife shot a whitetail buck in a mandatory testing area 10 days ago. I had the meat in a cooler and cut off the horns and pulled in to the check station and dropped off the head.
4 days later I processed the deer and put it in my freezer ( of course eating the heart, tender loins, and sampling the burger in the process).

I just saw this thread and remembered to go online and check the test. DETECTED.

So I have consumed some of it. I am not too worried about it, but at the same time my family probably won't want to eat it and I don't know it's worth it to try and keep any of it to "prove" something. It's dang good meat too....

This sucks

 

[Fordguy]

Prion disease in humans can take decades to present symptoms. An NIH study for some of the known prion diseases shows an incubation period of between 2 and 16 years. Other studies on different prion diseases show longer incubation periods.

30 years ago if you had asked me if I thought I'd ever have to keep up on research to identify potential risks involved with eating venison, I'd have thought you were crazy. Today, all anyone can do is stay informed and make their own personal best decision.

 

[Rich M]

That's not how CWD works. It's not a virus or bacteria. There is no bug. A deer has it or they don't.

And if you were that unlucky sob in which it did make the jump to humans in you, it's not going to give you life long issues. It's going to kill you. I guess it'll give you issues for the rest of your much shortened life.

Still not gonna eat cwd infected critter meat. Or moldy cheese even.

 

[Hoosker Doo]

I'm also in Wyoming and my wife shot a whitetail buck in a mandatory testing area 10 days ago. I had the meat in a cooler and cut off the horns and pulled in to the check station and dropped off the head.
4 days later I processed the deer and put it in my freezer ( of course eating the heart, tender loins, and sampling the burger in the process).

I just saw this thread and remembered to go online and check the test. DETECTED.

So I have consumed some of it. I am not too worried about it, but at the same time my family probably won't want to eat it and I don't know it's worth it to try and keep any of it to "prove" something. It's dang good meat too....

This sucks

So I talked with my dad and he said to play it safe and throw it away, and then spoke with my brother who pointed out that we are 4 deer from the same area last year and pretty much said it's probably not the first and probably not the last deer with CWD we'll eat. I'm somewhere in the middle?... I could be persuaded either way. I wish there was more definitive science one way or another.

The WY Game and Fish Dept says:
To date, there have been no cases of CWD in humans and no direct proof that humans can get CWD. However, animal studies suggest CWD poses a risk to some types of non-human primates, like monkeys, that eat meat from CWD-infected animals. These experimental studies raise the concern that CWD may pose a risk to humans and suggest that it is important to prevent exposures to CWD. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommend that CWD positive animals not be consumed.

The use of "recommend" and nothing stronger makes me think it's not a very high risk. What say you?

 

[fmyth]

So I talked with my dad and he said to play it safe and throw it away, and then spoke with my brother who pointed out that we are 4 deer from the same area last year and pretty much said it's probably not the first and probably not the last deer with CWD we'll eat. I'm somewhere in the middle?... I could be persuaded either way. I wish there was more definitive science one way or another.

The WY Game and Fish Dept says:
To date, there have been no cases of CWD in humans and no direct proof that humans can get CWD. However, animal studies suggest CWD poses a risk to some types of non-human primates, like monkeys, that eat meat from CWD-infected animals. These experimental studies raise the concern that CWD may pose a risk to humans and suggest that it is important to prevent exposures to CWD. Therefore, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommend that CWD positive animals not be consumed.

The use of "recommend" and nothing stronger makes me think it's not a very high risk. What say you?

How many dead people do they test for CWD each year? I asked a deputy coroner in my county and he had never heard of CWD. Asked my friend who has been an ER Doc for 30 years and he's never heard of CWD. Maybe we have no record of a human getting CWD because we don't test humans for CWD? I did lose a client/friend to mad cow disease and I can tell you I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

 

[Mosby]

My local deer herd has CWD. The worst in the entire state. I've decided not to hunt whitetail locally anymore. I just don't want to deal with it.

 

[Bluegrassvw]

I swear I read an article a few years back correlating dementia in older hunters to CWD.

 

[realunlucky]

I swear I read an article a few years back correlating dementia in older hunters to CWD.

This is a ridiculous statement I'd happily check the credibility of the author when you produce the article.

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[Devin1214]

Yeah I wouldn’t risk it.

 

[z987k]

How many dead people do they test for CWD each year? I asked a deputy coroner in my county and he had never heard of CWD. Asked my friend who has been an ER Doc for 30 years and he's never heard of CWD. Maybe we have no record of a human getting CWD because we don't test humans for CWD? I did lose a client/friend to mad cow disease and I can tell you I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

They don't need to test dead people for it. You don't just suddenly die, and you very likely aren't going to die of anything else. They'd figure it out before the person died. It would be a good bit like your friend that died of mad cow. In fact if it made the jump, I bet they'd suspect mad cow at first.

 

[fatlander]

Would you eat a crunch wrap supreme that you knew had some roach shit in it? I know I wouldn’t.

If you’ve eaten enough Taco Bell, you’ve probs had roach shit.

I liken the same analogy to CWD in venison.


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[Yoder]

Would you eat a crunch wrap supreme that you knew had some roach shit in it? I know I wouldn’t.

If you’ve eaten enough Taco Bell, you’ve probs had roach shit.

I liken the same analogy to CWD in venison.


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I agree. That's why I eat Taco Bell and also never get my deer tested. Did you know the FDA allows 10mg of mouse turds per pound in cocoa? Nobody cares about that when they eat a Snickers bar.

 

[long hunter]

Safer with wild harvested deer than most meat you buy at a grocery store.

 

[Btaylor]

I dont hunt in a CWD area but I also dont make a habit of cutting through the spine or any other bones for that matter. Field quarter and debone the the neck in the field and leave the rest where it falls just like you would with an elk. If you spine shoot one and are concerned about it debone around the wound giving it a wide birth. If I am going to keep the head or skull plate, that is the last thing that gets done and I dont use tools that will ever be near or used on meat.

 

[Bluegrassvw]

This is a ridiculous statement I'd happily check the credibility of the author when you produce the article.

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I want to say it was on a Meat Eater podcast (maybe) again, it was a few years ago and I wouldn’t even know where to look.

That said, I’ll see if I can find it.