Eating Wild Critters, Safe or a Gamble?

[Hunting Wife]

I've wondered if anyone has even gotten psittacosis from grouse or turkeys.

After 8 seasons of House M.D. you can become a complete hypochondriac.

I don’t think the ecology of those species would maintain that organism at infectious levels in the wild under normal conditions. It is, however, relatively common in colonial nesting water birds (gulls and pelicans) where you have lots of birds in a highly contaminated environment. I’ve been exposed to it a couple of times while doing mortality investigations at colonies.

I think at this point most of the major zoonotic diseases likely to infect someone in North America are pretty well known. Tularemia is not super common, but way more likely to be contracted by the average hunter than plague or most other things. Regionally there might be others (Brucella in the GYE, for example), but for the most part eating wild game is pretty darn safe. If you kill something that doesn’t act or look right, don’t eat it. Wear gloves when skinning/field dressing. If you are worried, cook things well and be cautious about eating predators and rodents...those are groups that tend to have higher incidence of disease in general.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Nope. Got feedback from one disease ecologist who said it "should be OK, just cook the hell out of it." Then qualified the statement with "It wouldn't hurt to run that question by someone who is a specialist in canines."

Know any canine disease specialists?

I've dated a few women who qualified as canines...only for a night.Ha!,Ha!

 

[thusby]

I couldn't bring myself to eat the bobcat that I got this year either. I looked at the meat, stored the meat, looked at it some more, thought about eating it, thought about cooking it for the dog, didn't want the dog to get something, and tossed it. Its hard for me to not eat what I kill but swamp bobcat is pretty far down my personal list of edibility.
I am pretty sure a wolf would rank below swamp bobcat.

 

[noharleyyet]

I suggest the @FAIR CHASE recipe for the #3.....moo goo gai pan feline

 

[The Yetti]

When I was being Med boarded in the Army I did an internship with Fort Carson FW. Part of our duties was documenting P-dog towns. Plotting locations, sizes, health of the town. We were very careful around plagued out towns. The only thing we did there was location and use bino to scan for evidence of burrowing owls using the holes. FoCo p-dogs were decimated badly several years back to the point that they are protected on post. Always creeped me out. Also, there are always a couple of cases of humans (usually kids) that get the plague around Pueblo every year from screwing around with them.

That's some interesting info, I'm always surprised at the number of them on post. I imagine all the building they've done on post since 06 took alot of the habitat they used as well.

 

[fmnjr]

Just swear off the wet market type stuff and you'll be ok.

 

[greatwhitebuffalo]

Woa woa woa! Let's not get carried away! I'd prefer to not eat shoe leather.

Yeah, ok. I don't know what I was thinking. Best stick to the medium-rare ballpark.

Chase with liberal amounts of 90 proof. That should take care of it. Right?

 

[JTHOMP]

If you are worried, cook things well and be cautious about eating predators and rodents...those are groups that tend to have higher incidence of disease in general.

Is that higher incident of disease nearly eliminated when cooked well and handled safely? CWD for instances we can't cook hot enough to kill it. Are there other known diseases similar that might be present?

 

[SFC B]

That's some interesting info, I'm always surprised at the number of them on post. I imagine all the building they've done on post since 06 took alot of the habitat they used as well.

In the last year or two I have noticed a LOT of towns popping up around 115.........I haven't been downrange since I retired 5 years ago.....maybe that is a sign they have made a bid for recovery? The big concern with their numbers back then was their position as a food source, especially for the big raptors.

 

[LuketheDog]

Nope. Got feedback from one disease ecologist who said it "should be OK, just cook the hell out of it." Then qualified the statement with "It wouldn't hurt to run that question by someone who is a specialist in canines."

Know any canine disease specialists?

I think the answer you're slowly sneaking up on here is DONT eat the wolf

 

[Hunting Wife]

Is that higher incident of disease nearly eliminated when cooked well and handled safely? CWD for instances we can't cook hot enough to kill it. Are there other known diseases similar that might be present?

Prions are a different animal, so to speak. I wouldn’t eat brains of anything, no matter how cooked for example. But most bacterial and parasitic organisms (which are the most common things people would contract) are killed by cooking. I’m sure there are some other weird things out there somewhere that might not be rendered inert by cooking, but I think the likelihood of something like that happening is exceedingly low. I suspect you’d be more likely to catch something funky from fleas or ticks coming off the animal you harvested than actually eating the meat.

 

[TOGIE]

i can't be the only forum member who has eaten both marmot and prairie dog.... right?

 

[Losing_Sanity]

Prions are a different animal, so to speak. I wouldn’t eat brains of anything, no matter how cooked for example. But most bacterial and parasitic organisms (which are the most common things people would contract) are killed by cooking. I’m sure there are some other weird things out there somewhere that might not be rendered inert by cooking, but I think the likelihood of something like that happening is exceedingly low. I suspect you’d be more likely to catch something funky from fleas or ticks coming off the animal you harvested than actually eating the meat.

Thanks for the well informed and professional contribution. It's good information to think about for sure.

Seems just about anything with fur has fleas and ticks... I would guess the time of year makes a difference in some states.

 

[Losing_Sanity]

i can't be the only forum member who has eaten both marmot and prairie dog.... right?

Does it taste like chicken?

 

[Hunting Wife]

Seems just about anything with fur has fleas and ticks... I would guess the time of year makes a difference in some states.

True. Plus different species of Arthropods carry different diseases. To a large degree vector, disease, and host distributions and interactions depend on climate as well. It’s definitely complex. The bottom line is it doesn’t hurt for anyone who plays or works outdoors to have at least a basic knowledge of what diseases might be present in their area.

 

[TOGIE]

Does it taste like chicken?

i mean yeah, basically

marmot is a bit greasy, prairie dog smelled up the kitchen like sage

both tasted just fine to be honest. did em like pan fried chicken.

i found this fact sheet from the prairie dog coalition and the colorado department of health, circulated by the humane soceity of the united states (yes I know, we don't need to start up with the issues there)

"Plague is found in rodents and their associated fleas throughout the Western U.S.. Prairie dogs are not silent, long-term reservoirs of plague; instead over 95% of prairie dogs will die within 78 hours of infection with plague. Because of this, prairie dogs can be an indicator species for the presence of plague circulating in other rodent species in an area. The loss of a prairie dog colony over the course of a few weeks, in absence of human control, strongly indicates the presence of plague. If you see an active prairie dog colony, plague probably is not present in that colony." -

given that i became less concerned about shooting p dog and eating it. actually eating it wasn't the concern. after skinning it i gave myself like three days to develop sypmtoms and then knew i was good and fried er up. i was never concerned about the marmot

one and done. i satisfied my curiosity and don't need to try again.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

I highly recommend episode 227? "Red Cutters" of the Meateater podcast. They host a gentleman who has a PhD in Meat Sciences. It's a fantastic listen!

Not to derail as they talk briefly on meat-born diseases, but the main focus is on how to make meat tender and tasty! I can't recommend it enough.

 

[The Yetti]

In the last year or two I have noticed a LOT of towns popping up around 115.........I haven't been downrange since I retired 5 years ago.....maybe that is a sign they have made a bid for recovery? The big concern with their numbers back then was their position as a food source, especially for the big raptors.

I live in Fountain and they are everywhere. Pretty cool to watch the big raptors prowling around.

 

[Wildabeest]

This all reminds me of a fishing trip I did in the Caribbean several years ago. We were hoping to catch sailfish or yellowfin, but all we were catching were barracuda. The outfitters would clomp them on the head with a bat to kill them and then throw them in holding tank. I knew that you could get sick from eating barracuda, so I asked the skipper if they were saving them for bait. He said “No, we give them to the locals to eat”. I asked whether the locals were somehow immune, and he said “No. What they do is cut off a few small pieces and feed it to the chickens. If the chickens seem OK, they eat the fish. If they chickens die, they eat the chickens.” We all got a good laugh out of that, but I don’t think he was joking. When we docked the boat, sure enough they gave all those dead barracuda to a bunch of locals hanging around the docks.

 

[TriStar Hunt]

i can't be the only forum member who has eaten both marmot and prairie dog.... right?

How’d they taste?! I’m sort of curious now! (They being small game...not plague )