Meat Safety - infected wound

[Bobrobheimer]

Hey,

Shot a bull elk this morning - after taking one side off and thinking his hind quarter looked a bit odd I flipped him over and found that he had a wound in that other sides hind. Possibly an antler stab. Skinning revealed a lot of very pronounced blood vessels all around on that side. There was a large softball size abbsess oozing pink goop. I abandoned that quarter. I imagine it would have killed him. My concern is do we think the infection could have been spreading to the rest of the body via blood and the rest of the meat or other hind is not fit for consumption? I made two trips out today but was planning to go back for the other hind quarter tomorrow. I didn’t take pictures unfortunately.

Don’t like the idea of feeding my family something risky. Presumably cooked well done it might be safe but I do like elk less than that usually.

Thanks for your thoughts. I will talk to CPW about it tomorrow as well after I haul that last potentially not good hind out.

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

I wouldn’t personally be concerned. Most bacteria that would commonly infect a wound (whether elk or human) is commonly ingested or already on the skin or hide. It causes a problem to the elk (or human) when there is an opportunistic wound, such as a puncture wound, breaking through the bodies defenses and proliferating.

Just remove the area and cut away any meat that is directly nearby as a precaution. Cook to proper temperature. Allow your stomach to take care of the rest. That’ll do it.

 

[JFK]

I wouldn’t be too concerned with it. Infections like that tend to be localized, and unless he looked obviously sick it was probably just an injury that was healing. I’ve killed a decent number of wild boars that had something like you describe from fighting with other pigs. I just cut a safe distance around it until all meat looks normal and have never had any ill effects or bad tasting meat from one. CPW might have good info on this. They might not. I’d trust a butcher above anyone else as they deal with this kind of thing all the time.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

CPW seemed to think it would also be fine but to cook the meat fully. Thinking taco meat and stew meat - any other suggestions for fully cooked elk that’s good?

 

[Cameron.25]

CPW seemed to think it would also be fine but to cook the meat fully. Thinking taco meat and stew meat - any other suggestions for fully cooked elk that’s good?

Marinated thin sliced recipes maybe? Im korean and bulgolgi is a go to for us. I slice ithe meat thin then get it in the marinade and vacuum seal it in batches. Easy meal to prepare from there down the road

 

[Jeffp]

As a former journeyman meat cutter in both a packing house and grocery I would agree with just discarding the abscess area and eating the rest.

 

[Jtb.kfd]

I have had two elk and one deer over the years with exactly what you are describing. One large bull had a wound so deep on a hind quarter that over a gallon of pus came out when we took the hide off and sliced into the wound channel.
We butcher our own animals and I also work in the medical field which helped me to understand infections/the healing process. With that, I had no concerns eating the animals. We cut out around that portion of meat and ate the rest with no issue.