Anyone nervous about feeding venison to family?

[LopeHunter]

Prions are scary in they can live for decades before becoming a detriment to a person. There is minimal indication CWD found in the deer family has ever infected a person. Two buddies each developed a rare prion disease and they each ate venison. Could just be a statistical "one in a million" situation and most likely that is the case.

So, any reservation about feeding venison to family? If turns out CWD can jump to humans then the prions survive boiling and lack DNA material. Nasty stuff. CWD has jumped to monkeys fed CWD deer meat and monkeys, like humans, are primates.

https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news...e-jump-humans-concerns-keep-rising/453371001/

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...n-people-ate-people-a-strange-disease-emerged

 

[joelhunter]

My friend saved a doe head to have it tested for the first time this year. If I would have done some prior research on where to send and what to save, I might have as well.

 

[375H&H]

Even though the data has not confirmed it yet I would bet CWD can transfer to humans just like mad cow can. It is important to know whether CWD has been documented in the county you are hunting and if so, testing is something I would do for peace of mind.

 

[nrpate05]

I don't think I'd feel comfortable eating or serving meat that was infected. There is a good Meateater podcast on CWD that is worth a listen.

 

[Gellar]

I have all my deer tested, we are in the CWD zone in Iowa so it is free of charge. The dnr biologist comes to you and collects the sample. Results take a couple weeks to get back. If our deer weren't tested I would be nervous Feeding it to my wife and little chitlin.

 

[406LIFE]

With no known transmission from deer to humans, and the sheer number who eat venison, I can't see enough of a correlation that I would even suspect CWD as the source of your friends prion diseases.
Then again, I don't have the fancy degree or letters behind my name to back that. Transmission between monkeys (species?) does not necessitate that there will be a transmission in humans. There have been several peer reviewed studies pointing out the failures in using primates as analog to humans. There is quite a lot of difference in that 2% of DNA that's different.

Still, I would not fault anyone who was cautious and after having a positive test, discarding their meat.

 

[Trigger50]

I am alittle concerned. But there are some points of interest. Mad Coe Disease affected people of all ages and the symptoms came on quickly. CJD only appears in people over 50 years old.

 

[HighDesertSage]

Isn't the disease in the brain and spinal fluid? Maybe I should pay more attention, but my kids love deer and elk.

 

[kansasdad]

When neurosurgery is done on CJD patients (another prion based neurological disease) the instruments that would normally be processed, sterilized and used again (and again, and again) are segregated away and never again used. The disposal of these instruments is almost as if it was nuclear waste.

Your friendly local jerky jockey who makes your favorite snack sticks is not even coming close to hospital style sterilization. Food for thought........pun intended.

 

[1_pointer]

I am not.

 

[belly-deep]

What kind of prion disease did your buddies develop?