CWD safe to eat or not?

[M70375!]

I wouldn’t. Maybe feed it to the dogs?

I don't want to risk my dog getting it

 

[Hogpatrol]

In Pennsylvania, antlerless deer licenses are by WMU and usually sold out by now. Three WMUs still have them available and they are in CWD zones. It's jumped the Susquehanna river and is in one county over from the two WMUs I hunt. Agree it's the biggest threat to big game hunting in my lifetime.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Are we saying that thousands of hunters have not killed CWD positive animals before testing was available? Or in areas that don’t test. And then eaten CWD positive meat? With no known consequences.

 

[Safari Dave]

No way!

 

[Hogpatrol]

Are we saying that thousands of hunters have not killed CWD positive animals before testing was available? Or in areas that don’t test. And then eaten CWD positive meat? With no known consequences.

https://vet.ucalgary.ca/news/chronic-wasting-disease-may-transmit-humans-research-finds

 

[Safari Dave]

CWD just recently appeared in Georgia (USA).

I think this is good information:

Chronic Wasting Disease Management | Department Of Natural Resources Division

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) is actively managing CWD through hunter and landowner participation, required carcass disposal, and expanded testing in the CMA. Hunters must follow the new carcass disposal rule and out-of-state carcass import rules...

georgiawildlife.com

 

[Datchew]

Prions are not destroyed by cooking and they are highly transmissible. Prions really came to light in the scientific community when it was discovered in the brains of the Fore people who were suffering from the degenerative neurological disease called Kuru. The Fore were cannibalistic and would eat their dead ritualistically and thats how the disease was transmitted. We know that human-human transmission happens the only question is about deer/elk/cattle-human transmission. There is some circumstantial evidence that it can/has occurred and I think most people who know more than just what they have read on internet forums think that it does happen. I think that CWD is the biggest threat to sport hunting there is even beyond habitat loss. I wouldnt eat an animal with CWD. There are things that can happen to you that are worse than dying and having CJD/CWD is one of those things...

Fascinating. Thx for the info

I dug up info on this as well. They don't denature like typical proteins. Similar to virus "hard casings" that allow them to survive chemical attack, these babies need temperature enough to anneal soft metals to break down.

Pretty impressive.

 

[Biddleman]

. There are things that can happen to you that are worse than dying and having CJD/CWD is one of those things...

My wife's aunt had CJD. Best way I can describe her condition was she was a zombie. Empty, distant stare. "Lights on but no one is home." Im not sure if lights were even on. Total zombie like state. I saw image of her brain, looked like swiss cheese.
It's not like some sort of dementia. The prion can live in your brain for decades before showing itself.
As far as destroying a prion, even cremating someone will not destroy it.
Supposedly CJD can be/ has been transmitted by people eating sheep and squirrels that were infected. So I personally wouldnt eat an animal testing positive CWD.

 

[steve white]

Squirrels?
Another thought for consideration: if the prions are in the spinal cord, how far do they range from there? Both the interior filets and the back straps are right next to the spine and nobody throws that away. Plus it would be easy to nick the spinal cord with a sharp knife. What about boning neck meat if there are lymph nodes in there somewhere?
I know that things have relaxed in England concerning eating beef with a sawed bone. Many people think it tastes better and were ready to re-indulge as soon as permitted.

 

[Tgood1]

As known im somewhat ignorant of cwd issues as im not in a cwd zone, yet. I asked my biologist buddy here about it, granted he specializes in quail, grouse and turkey, he rolled his eyes and exact words were, " don't get me started, sick animals are sick, use common sense" I left it at that

 

[Sabre]

Squirrels?
Another thought for consideration: if the prions are in the spinal cord, how far do they range from there? Both the interior filets and the back straps are right next to the spine and nobody throws that away. Plus it would be easy to nick the spinal cord with a sharp knife. What about boning neck meat if there are lymph nodes in there somewhere?
I know that things have relaxed in England concerning eating beef with a sawed bone. Many people think it tastes better and were ready to re-indulge as soon as permitted.

CWD prions are found in blood, urine, saliva, feces, meat, lymph nodes, brain, spine..... so, basically the prions can be found in the entire animal. So the real question isn't if the meat you consume will have prions, it is if the prions can infect you or your pets if you handle them or consume them.

 

[Flbt]

CWD prions are found in blood, urine, saliva, feces, meat, lymph nodes, brain, spine..... so, basically the prions can be found in the entire animal. So the real question isn't if the meat you consume will have prions, it is if the prions can infect you or your pets if you handle them or consume them.

If you do a salt brin soak to pull the blood out and you drain it and repeat a few times
Would that help if there in the blood?

Not trying to say eat it one way or the other but just interested if that would be safer?

 

[375Ruger416]

View attachment 723085 https://vet.ucalgary.ca/news/chronic-wasting-disease-may-transmit-humans-research-finds

Thank you for the article from my Alma mater. The TLR summary is research shows CWD may be able to jump the species barrier and could have different symptoms and signs in humans than ungulates. This does not mean it can, just that it is biologically plausible.

As a physician, I would not be blase about exposing myself to KNOWN CWD positive meat.

‘Hannaoui and her colleagues Irina Zemlyankina, Chris (Sheng Chun) Chang and Maria Arifin took CWD isolates from infected deer and injected them into “humanized” mouse models. Over a period of years, the mice developed CWD. Further, the mice were found to shed infectious prions in feces.

“The implication is that CWD in humans might be contagious and transmit from person to person,” says Gilch.

Lead author Samia Hannaoui says the new study is important in making people aware that CWD in humans might be completely different from what's expected and from other known prion diseases.

Another “compelling” finding by the researchers is that CWD may show up differently in humans than in animals and other human prion diseases, and be difficult to’

 

[steve white]

Thank you for the article from my Alma mater. The TLR summary is research shows CWD may be able to jump the species barrier and could have different symptoms and signs in humans than ungulates. This does not mean it can, just that it is biologically plausible.

As a physician, I would not be blase about exposing myself to KNOWN CWD positive meat.

‘Hannaoui and her colleagues Irina Zemlyankina, Chris (Sheng Chun) Chang and Maria Arifin took CWD isolates from infected deer and injected them into “humanized” mouse models. Over a period of years, the mice developed CWD. Further, the mice were found to shed infectious prions in feces.

“The implication is that CWD in humans might be contagious and transmit from person to person,” says Gilch.

Lead author Samia Hannaoui says the new study is important in making people aware that CWD in humans might be completely different from what's expected and from other known prion diseases.

Another “compelling” finding by the researchers is that CWD may show up differently in humans than in animals and other human prion diseases, and be difficult to’

OK, now you're scaring me...
For me, first priority is going to be to find out if my hunting area has reported cases, find a check center to have my animal tested, and finally to do all my own butchering (I have always done that, except for Kuby's sausage) and skip any possible cross contamination from a processor.
If I catch it, I am going to bite a certain person I am thinking of before I pass.

Could this sort of thing become a global food crisis event?

 

[318AE]

I just found out the elk I killed tested positive for chronic wasting disease. Unfortunately my cooler stopped working and I had to take it to town and have it processed immediately and was unable to wait for the test to come back before processing it. As far as I can tell there has never been a case of it transmitting to humans, but the CDC says not to eat it. I got $864 in the processing and I really hate to throw it away. What do you guys think? Eat or throw.

Out of curiosity, what is your processor that processed the contaminated elk saying or doing about this?

 

[Doug Hamilton]

Get a pressure canner and start canning, no microorganism, bacteria, virus survive, and quite delicious

Wrong. Prions are not microorganisms in that sense. They are nor affected by heat. A lot of research has been conducted on this. I wish there was a safe way to cook the meat and make it safe, but there isn't.

 

[RedTag]

I believe this disease is going to have a major negative effect on hunter numbers. A friend of mine has done deer camp as long as I can remember. Last year a deer tested positive there and now none of that group is hunting this year. I’ve known two people who left this world by VCJD. Not something I would want to roll the dice with.

You’ve known two people who died from a one-in-a-million disease. Presumably they were hunters? Food for thought…

 

[Taylorz1]

You’ve known two people who died from a one-in-a-million disease. Presumably they were hunters? Food for thought…

These numbers are rough but lets say 3-4% of people in North America eat Venison regularly and in highly impacted areas about 30% of the deer have cwd. Thats a lot of CWD deer numerically but very very few epidemiologically. Most people eating venison are probably not eating CWD positive animals. So what if 0.1% of people who ate venison from an animal with CWD developed CJD over the span of a few years ? Some of those patients would be misdiagnosed with dementia or delirium and their deaths not attributed to CJD. How long would it take for doctors to make the connection..:many many years...if those were the odds would you still eat it ? We cant feed prions knowingly to people and the way the diagnosis is made in humans is generally post mortem by sectioning the brain which is rarely done. Knowing that you had only a 0.1% chance of dying a horrific death where you didnt know who you were, didnt recognize your family and were totally dependent on others for every basic need until you finally died from starvation or status epilepticcus ?There is something like a 0.0003 chance your home will burn down this year. Are you going to cancel your homeowners insurance ? just saying...

 

[Boone66]

Well, here is my uneducated point of view. Most of us has probably already eaten it. You have to figure, how many deer or elk did you eat from a area, and then they say that CWD is in that same area, then they say, well in a 10mile area from this point, is a CWD area and all deer inside this area must be tested and we will issue more tags from that area, but just over this line, all is good? I live on the very edge of such a area, when I first moved here, everyone ate deer, elk, sheep and moose from this area, then about 5 years ago, they say CWD and all of a sudden, animals on one side of the ridge from me were bad and animals right around my house were good to go. It's like animals won't move, especially when pressured by wolves. I know lots of people that eat it without testing it, both inside and outside the zone, they just debone all of it. Also, the tests they run, they need the unfrozen head to test it, kinda makes you think...why unfrozen? You also have to remember, this was created in a lab and released into the wild. Kinda sounds familiar . What I do know is when the government shows up and says we are here to help, I run. First CWD, then wolves, then the jab...what is next on the list to depopulate the earth? By the way, I'd cook it well done and eat it.

 

[Boone66]

In Pennsylvania, antlerless deer licenses are by WMU and usually sold out by now. Three WMUs still have them available and they are in CWD zones. It's jumped the Susquehanna river and is in one county over from the two WMUs I hunt. Agree it's the biggest threat to big game hunting in my lifetime.

I would have to say that wolves are the biggest threat. Cwd just sort of pops up in certain areas, if you looked maps of it, a lot of pockets are hundreds of miles from each other. This came out of a elk heard held and studied by a Colorado collage and yet, it has spread far and wide from their and still Colorado has not become over taken by it..kinda makes you think.