Waste of Game

[mxracer317]

Its like covid, if you dont test for it, then you dont have it . I eat all of my harvested animals.

Right?! If the animal looks sick or skinny then I wouldn’t shoot it or eat it regardless. Everyone says CWD doesn’t affect humans. I bet CWD has been around for a lot longer than anyone has known.

 

[Brian in Montana]

I was onder the impression that it didnt affect humans physically or digested. Has new information come out?

I don't know how MT is turning out results as fast as they seem to be, but FWP is certainly taking it very seriously. Kind of funny that the last bear I shot, they took a year and a half to get the age data back, but it's obviously different procedure and priorities and all that.

Also, the Biologist I talked to said that at this point CWD has been studied a great deal and is actually pretty well understood. People have undoubtedly eaten tons of infected animals and there has never been evidence of the disease ever jumping to humans.

 

[Wyhunter]

I had to turn in a mandatory jaw gland last year for my deer because of where I shot it. Never received a call or email from Wyoming Game and Fish. I wasnt too worried.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Just had one of ours come back positive. Didn’t look sick or skinny, appeared outwardly normal. It was boned out in the freezer awaiting results. It’s going to be going to the landfill when I get home.

 

[Bill Christy]

CWD is spreading far and wide. Here in Idaho, it has shown up in several units. Sadly, taking the meat to the dump is all you can do! One can visually detect advanced stages of CWD in an animal before shooting it in the field, but less advanced stages can only be revealed by testing. Here in Idaho, the local F&G offer a sampling kit, with lessons on how to use it, for interested hunters.

 

[Sytes]

Minnesota has an immediate test result and they are trying to incorporate it into a personal field test kit.
Currently their setting requires sending in samples for test results though backlogged so it takes time.
From what I've read, it's a simple test that immediately turns red if positive and blue if not. Unfortunately, and I don't know why, it's not resulted in an immediate field test unit.

Also another interesting aspect, for some reason FWP says either dispose as garbage with the select bagged or... Leave in the field. Not sure how it's validated as CWD positive in the field, "or left at the kill site."

 

[huntnpack]

I was kind of appalled when I went to the landfill yesterday and saw this laying off to the side:

View attachment 305475

Maybe this was roadkill, but I'm not sure why someone would gut and skin roadkill. I can't imagine that this wouldn't be considered waste of game. I seriously considered calling the Game Warden, but didn't.

Essentially helped family friends do something similar once. Had a young hunter describe basically walking right up to a buck and shooting it. Buck clearly didn’t seem to be aware of its surroundings and its body condition was poor. Whole thing, head and all was gotten rid of. I’ve wondered if there were other things we could have done with it but wouldn’t say I lost sleep over it.

 

[thomas89]

I was under the impression that it didnt affect humans physically or digested. Has new information come out?

No new information to my knowledge. They were able to get CWD to jump to a primate by feeding it copious amounts of infected meat IIRC.

Tracing previous human cases of TSE’s to consumption of flesh (brain matter or otherwise), has me willing to dispose of anything positive. Wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

The higher-ups I’ve talked to all agree they’d get rid of their own meat as well. Someone that educated willing to throw an animal out says a lot IMO.

I would not even feel comfortable giving away a known positive animal if someone wanted it.

Nothing is run through my processing equipment without a negative test. Anything used in processing that can’t be sanitized (think the current recommendation is a 30 minute soak in 50/50 bleach solution for porous materials and 5 for non-porous I.e, stainless steel knives) would get tossed if I cut up a positive one.

Had a buddy shoot a really nice looking 2.5 year old doe out here this fall …. Positive. Major kick in the nuts to go through all the work to have to toss it but such is life.

 

[Wyhunter]

No new information to my knowledge. They were able to get CWD to jump to a primate by feeding it copious amounts of infected meat IIRC.

Tracing previous human cases of TSE’s to consumption of flesh (brain matter or otherwise), has me willing to dispose of anything positive. Wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

The higher-ups I’ve talked to all agree they’d get rid of their own meat as well. Someone that educated willing to throw an animal out says a lot IMO.

I would not even feel comfortable giving away a known positive animal if someone wanted it.

Nothing is run through my processing equipment without a negative test. Anything used in processing that can’t be sanitized (think the current recommendation is a 30 minute soak in 50/50 bleach solution for porous materials and 5 for non-porous I.e, stainless steel knives) would get tossed if I cut up a positive one.

Had a buddy shoot a really nice looking 2.5 year old doe out here this fall …. Positive. Major kick in the nuts to go through all the work to have to toss it but such is life.

I want to look into that study, it sounds fascinating. I usually take my game to a butcher. If they process a positive animal, it could contaminate my meat as well. Im open to the idea of testing it, but my family lives off of wild game. It would be hard to throw out 100 lbs if I cant get a duplicate tag.

 

[SaskHunter]

I want to look into that study, it sounds fascinating. I usually take my game to a butcher. If they process a positive animal, it could contaminate my meat as well. Im open to the idea of testing it, but my family lives off of wild game. It would be hard to throw out 100 lbs if I cant get a duplicate tag.

Ultimately, like it's been said before, everything that is contaminated by CWD will have prions on it for a long time. That includes soil, feed, crops, knives, butchering blocks, grinders, european mounts and the pot I boil heads in...

Your butcher could've processed a positive animal 5 years ago and there could still be prions contaminating meat being processed today.

The questions we need answers to are if it affects humans and is the meat safe to eat?!

 

[mxracer317]

Tuna has mercury in it. I still eat sushi.

I think out of anything, wild game meat has to be one of the most clean meats you could consume. Heck, people have been dying from cantaloupe recently.

So for me, as long as the animal doesn’t look sick, running around in circles like a zombie or foaming at the mouth I’m gonna eat the meat.

 

[BenP]

I mean I wasn't there but if it was hit on the road the rest might not of been too salvageable??

Someone attempted to clean it. The back legs had slits to hang it up and then there was a cut around on one of the back legs. Even still if it was just a road kill the message still looks bad.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I found a bear cub one year that some idiot has killed, gutted, and drug a half a mile. Then cut their tag off the cub and let it lay. I called the local officer and met him and showed him the bear and we both decided that it had been killed along with the mother bear. So, he went to the check station and sure enough a hunter had killed a sow in the area. He questioned him and the guy folded big time on his buddy who was embarrassed that he had shot a tiny bear, so he left it laying in the woods.......

Moral of the story, call the warden. It's worth it.

 

[ChrisB]

CWD has been around since 1967 at least. No one has gotten sick or died from eating the meat. So how many animals and pounds of meat have been eaten? Many thousands for sure and millions of pounds of meat probably. If that's not enough proof of safety you will never find it. In this Huntr youtube discussion Jay Gregory and the hosts talk about it. He has some very good points at least. Jay has the longest running hunting TV show, The Wild Outdoors so he has been around this discussion from the start. Start at 137:00

 

[kwyeewyk]

I'd heard of concern about it spreading to humans, but this is the most direct statement I've seen that some experts think it's only a matter of time. I worked for Dr. Roffe on some of his brucellosis research, definitely someone I have a lot of professional respect for.

‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans

Warnings that ‘slow-moving disaster’ in North America raises chances of fatal mad cow-type disease jumping species barrier

www.theguardian.com