Protocols: what to do with meat while CWD test is pending?

[Gourmet]

CWD testing is mandatory in some of Washington's best whitetail GMU's this year. Does anyone have experience on what processing protocols produce the best flavor and texture for the meat while testing occurs (4-6 weeks is estimated)?

When do you freeze/wet age, at what stage of processing, etc?

In my case, I would like to limit the amount of processing on a potentially positive case. I would also not consume a positive case. Thank you for your input!

 

[Laramie]

CWD testing is mandatory in some of Washington's best whitetail GMU's this year. Does anyone have experience on what processing protocols produce the best flavor and texture for the meat while testing occurs (4-6 weeks is estimated)?

When do you freeze/wet age, at what stage of processing, etc?

In my case, I would like to limit the amount of processing on a potentially positive case. I would also not consume a positive case. Thank you for your input!

If you are worried about eating a positive deer, I recommend not hunting in areas where it has been found previously.

While waiting for test results, wrap and freeze whole quarters.

 

[Gourmet]

If you are worried about eating a positive deer, I recommend not hunting in areas where it has been found previously.

While waiting for test results, wrap and freeze whole quarters.

Thanks for the suggestion. There are GMUs with mandatory testing that have not had any CWD before that I would like to hunt in.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

While we were waiting on mandatory tests I just muscled out and froze them as normal but we didn't have great odds of popping hot even in the mandatory zone and our tests were coming back around 2 weeks or so. The biggest thing is use a dedicated knife/tool to sever the spine if you remove the head and such and don't mix that with your meat knife. It is possible to bag and freeze whole quarters and defrost to process later, venison can be thawed and refrozen without quality loss.

 

[grfox92]

I have never waited more than a week for results, so to date it had just sat in the cooler aging.

Sent from my SM-S931U using Tapatalk

 

[Coveyleader]

When I kill an elk, I never process it all in a short time. If I kill one in September, I might not be done processing it until December or January.

I like to take the whole quarter, place it in a nice clean game bag/pillow case. Then I take a contractor bag, and place the quarter inside, and then pull the bag back over itself (they are very large bags) and then tie or tape off. I've never had any issue with meat quality doing this.

I will mention, some freezers blow alot of air, you don't want to store any meat or hides in these. It will dry the contents out very fast.

 

[Chris in TN]

Thanks for the suggestion. There are GMUs with mandatory testing that have not had any CWD before that I would like to hunt in.

If it hasn't been found there before, my goodness, man, eat the thing. It generally spreads at a very slow rate and you're highly unlikely to be the first guy to shoot something with CWD in a previously 'clean' unit.

 

[Gourmet]

Here is what I heard back from Sierra Anthony, Meat Scientist. She was lovely enough to get back to my email:


If you want to 100% save all of your processing until after the CWD results are in, AND you have enough freezer space to freeze whole quarters, go for it! You can put your whole quarters in the freezer after meat has gone into rigor (~12 hours after you’ve made the kill). The faster you get meat in the freezer, the longer your shelf life will be, better water holding capacity, and less risk for spoilage if the weather is too warm or pathogenic exposure.

If you want to hang a deer for a couple days, 1 – 2 days is plenty for the tenderization impact. Deer often do not have the backfat necessary to prevent the meat from drying out, so longer than 2 days is wasting meat (evaporative loss and more dried meat to trim away). I am not keen on the idea of hanging for 6 weeks, even at 29 degrees. It’s better if you have a cooler to hang the carcass in, but it’s still a long time for something to go wrong or the carcass to dry out.

Recommendations:

• Plan to freeze quarters 12 -18 hours after harvest
• Wrap quarters as tightly as you can to prevent oxygen exposure:
  • Wrap quarters in plastic wrap or wax paper
  • Double bag in thick contractor bags
• Freeze quickly:
  • Drop the temp on the meat quickly rather than a slow freeze.
  • If you have multiple freezers, spread out the quarters so they can all freeze quickly and have good airflow.

Food for thought:

• If you do not have the space to hold your meat for 6 weeks or are concerned about hanging outside in warm temperatures, you can process your meat in a way that will minimize CWD risk.
• Parts of the animal that are most at risk of CWD exposure would be: brain, spinal cord (vertebrae), spleen, tonsils, and lymph nodes
• As long as you bone out your meat with special emphasis to not save neck bone or leave the bone on the backstrap, then your meat is free of spinal cord.
• Lymph nodes are found in big chunks of fat in the neck, shoulder, sirloin, and leg. Make your meat as lean as possible to avoid any hidden lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are not in backfat.
• Do not process heart or liver until testing comes back.

 

[ShakoMako]

We live in a CWD hotspot. Hang it for a few days as weather allows, then process as normal. We’ve only been “burned” with a positive deer once, where we had to dump the cut up meat.

 

[highcountrymuley]

As I said in another post- if you take meat to processor : (1) there is no way the processor- between every separate animal- cleans every surface and tool with enough bleach to kill every trace of ( potentially) positive animal matter. (2) they don't even guarantee your animal isn't mixed with other animals , prob at the start and tail end of your animal in the assembly line. Wouldn't this mean if you utilize a meat processor you are guaranteed to have cwd introduced into your animal even if that single animal you killed tested negative? And Wouldn't that guarantee that everyone that has eaten meat from any processor has indeed eaten cwd positive meat? And no one has confirmed to have contracted (the human equivalent CJD) from a cwd positive deer or elk? Getting less scared of cwd as I type this.