Hunters and CWD

[AgronAlum]

I know there are probably a ton of hunters on here. I’m not a hunter (too many other expensive hobbies) but get a lot of deer meat from people we know.

How much do you guys worry about prions and CWD? Do you test your deer when you bring them in?

The more I read about prions and their dormancy, the more they scare the **** out of me.

 

[clone4life82]

I know there are probably a ton of hunters on here. I’m not a hunter (too many other expensive hobbies) but get a lot of deer meat from people we know.

How much do you guys worry about prions and CWD? Do you test your deer when you bring them in?

The more I read about prions and their dormancy, the more they scare the **** out of me.

The DNR goes to local taxidermists and takes random samples and will let you know if you have it. A co worker of mine went to get his taken care of and notified of it.

 

[jkbuff98]

What county the deer were harvested in might determine if you want to test. Full updated DNR policy on CWD in link

https://www.iowadnr.gov/media/8413/download?inline

 

[Tojo1311]

Our family has hunting land in Richland county WI, about 20-30 min from Mt. Horeb area which was the ground zero outbreak in WI back in like 2002.

We will always have our deer tested and personally won’t get the meat processed if it comes back confirmed with CWD.

Some of our hunters, we host family and friends, and most of the locals will still process and eat the CWD meat. I’ve never heard of anything coming from eating it after cooking properly.

I will say the testing always left us with questions as usually it’s a single person cutting and grabbing all the samples to test. They never clean the knife or disinfect anything between deers or keep things very separated.

When talking with the DNR in WI it always comes to “we need more funding….to test more”.

When questioned further about what will come from additional testing, what the strategy would be with more funding, or why would additional testing change things, it will revert back to some form of “we need more funding so we can test more”.

That hasn’t helped their case and management efforts get buy in from the locals.

 

[frackincygy]

I've hunted deer in Allamakee County for years (state hot spot). We've had the DNR sample from probably 30+ animals over the years and the only one which we heard came back as positive was an animal which was obviously sick - very skinny, drooling/slobering, stumbling down the trail, etc. Basically a "zombie deer", took the animal to put it out of it's obvious misery and to limit the spread. We didn't use any meat from that deer due to it's obvious condition.

Have never really had any concerns beyond that with animals, but we don't save as much neck meat as we used to and we are also very conscious over which butchering tools come into contact with the head part of an animal - e.g. a bone saw used to take the skull plate won't be used to take a rib roast or a knife used to skin the head won't be used to clean quarters or other meat we plan to eat.

 

[clone4life82]

Our family has hunting land in Richland county WI, about 20-30 min from Mt. Horeb area which was the ground zero outbreak in WI back in like 2002.

We will always have our deer tested and personally won’t get the meat processed if it comes back confirmed with CWD.

Some of our hunters, we host family and friends, and most of the locals will still process and eat the CWD meat. I’ve never heard of anything coming from eating it after cooking properly.

I will say the testing always left us with questions as usually it’s a single person cutting and grabbing all the samples to test. They never clean the knife or disinfect anything between deers or keep things very separated.

When talking with the DNR in WI it always comes to “we need more funding….to test more”.

When questioned further about what will come from additional testing, what the strategy would be with more funding, or why would additional testing change things, it will revert back to some form of “we need more funding so we can test more”.

That hasn’t helped their case and management efforts get buy in from the locals.

The key with it is butchering it properly. I believe the CWD is only transmissible from the brain and or spinal cord tissues (maybe bone marrow also?). Then cooking it properly is another key.

 

[Entropy]

I hunt in WI and I watch the mannerisms of the deer I drop.
So far, I haven't had anything pop up.
I also keep tabs on the reports out.
The county I hunt in has about a 0.3% infection rate out of all tests.

CWD Deer Testing Results by County

Deer farms seems to be of some issue.

New chronic wasting disease case confirmed at Portage County deer farm - Brownfield Ag News

A central Wisconsin deer farm has a newly confirmed case of chronic wasting disease. The Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection does not name the farm, but says it is in Portage County where there are two licensed deer farms. The positive test came from a three-year-old buck...

www.brownfieldagnews.com

 

[WIBadger]

The key with it is butchering it properly. I believe the CWD is only transmissible from the brain and or spinal cord tissues (maybe bone marrow also?). Then cooking it properly is another key.

I’m pretty sure it can’t be destroyed through cooking. That’s one of the many things that makes it scary if it was ever found to transfer (which there is no evidence that it does yet)

And it looks like it can be found in the meat

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/chronic-...d-elk-meat-and-water-used-boiling-risk-people

 

[AgronAlum]

I’m pretty sure it can’t be destroyed through cooking. That’s one of the many things that makes it scary if it was ever found to transfer (which there is no evidence that it does yet)

And it looks like it can be found in the meat

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/chronic-...d-elk-meat-and-water-used-boiling-risk-people

Yep. Can be found in the meat. Can lay dormant for like a year and a half. Can not be cooked out. Prions need something like 1800 degrees to incinerate them.

Some prion diseases can lay dormant for up to 30 years. It's wild stuff.

 

[Big Daddy Kang]

Probably not warranted but I avoid deer meat because of CWD/prion disease.

 

[nhclone]

If you want to read a word salad on it, CDC has a semi-recent look at it:

Lack of Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease Prions to Human Cerebral Organoids

Chronic Wasting Disease Prions

wwwnc.cdc.gov

"Overall, the unsuccessful propagation of CWD in cerebral organoids supports a strong species barrier to transmission of CWD prions to humans."

We don't get too concerned about it. There is some theoretical work out there indicating it COULD be transmissible to humans, but no study I've seen has found that to be true. We take the normal precautions with any meat we process, but nothing additional for CWD.

 

[DrClone]

I know there are probably a ton of hunters on here. I’m not a hunter (too many other expensive hobbies) but get a lot of deer meat from people we know.

How much do you guys worry about prions and CWD? Do you test your deer when you bring them in?

The more I read about prions and their dormancy, the more they scare the **** out of me.

From what I understand the prion is present in spinal cord and brain. We don't harvest or keep any of that and I don't know anyone that does. As far as I know there has never been a confirmed case of CWD in humans. I don't have any concern of contacting CWD from venison.

 

[FarmerCy1]

From what I understand the prion is present in spinal cord and brain. We don't harvest or keep any of that and I don't know anyone that does. As far as I know there has never been a confirmed case of CWD in humans. I don't have any concern of contacting CWD from venison.

CWD is known as Creutzfeld-Jakobs disease in humans, and it is rare. Prions are also the cause of BSE (Mad Cow Diseases) in cattle. As someone upstream said, it’s all in sanitary dressing as far as control- don’t use the spinal column or brain, rotate knives when cutting those regions, etc. If the prions that cause BSE are similar to CWD, probably should cut the end of the small intestine and tonsils out as well (if you so choose to save the tongue or use the intestines as casings), but most people just dispose of those parts.

 

[cyclone101]

Zero. I'm an avid hunter and deer meat is 80% of the meat eaten in our house. I have never and will never have them tested. And to be honest, it's kinda comical how some of it is handled. For example, if you take your deer to a locker (at least in southern IA) they'll ask you if your deer is from Missouri (MO has lots of "CWD Counties") Then they'll ask you if you've had it tested for CWD. If you are having it tested, they won't process it until the results come back negative. Whatever, fine. But they'll hop right to it if you haven't had it tested. ?

Personally I think it's being used to drum up fear and therefore more grants and funding. MO and WI both I believe have hired sharpshooters in the past to straight up exterminate deer. Essentially legalized wanton waste. To what end? These prions supposedly survive in soil for years if not forever. So kill all the deer so the prion doesn't get em first? Lol what?

These CWD programs are a wet dream for insurance companies - who you'll find lobbying at the Capitol for all the most aggressive and irresponsible policies that AREN'T favorable to the whitetail deer of Iowa.

Anyway... I'm ranting. I deeply care about the quality of whitetail hunting in our state and if the deer themselves were the priority, EHD would be what gets the funding. Not CWD.

 

[ISUTex]

Yep. Can be found in the meat. Can lay dormant for like a year and a half. Can not be cooked out. Prions need something like 1800 degrees to incinerate them.

Some prion diseases can lay dormant for up to 30 years. It's wild stuff.

So are we going to see deer hunters and their familes turn into zombies soon? We don't need that.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Yep. Can be found in the meat. Can lay dormant for like a year and a half. Can not be cooked out. Prions need something like 1800 degrees to incinerate them.

Some prion diseases can lay dormant for up to 30 years. It's wild stuff.

Prions are one of the strangest things on this planet.

 

[NWICY]

Zero. I'm an avid hunter and deer meat is 80% of the meat eaten in our house. I have never and will never have them tested. And to be honest, it's kinda comical how some of it is handled. For example, if you take your deer to a locker (at least in southern IA) they'll ask you if your deer is from Missouri (MO has lots of "CWD Counties") Then they'll ask you if you've had it tested for CWD. If you are having it tested, they won't process it until the results come back negative. Whatever, fine. But they'll hop right to it if you haven't had it tested. ?

Personally I think it's being used to drum up fear and therefore more grants and funding. MO and WI both I believe have hired sharpshooters in the past to straight up exterminate deer. Essentially legalized wanton waste. To what end? These prions supposedly survive in soil for years if not forever. So kill all the deer so the prion doesn't get em first? Lol what?

These CWD programs are a wet dream for insurance companies - who you'll find lobbying at the Capitol for all the most aggressive and irresponsible policies that AREN'T favorable to the whitetail deer of Iowa.

Anyway... I'm ranting. I deeply care about the quality of whitetail hunting in our state and if the deer themselves were the priority, EHD would be what gets the funding. Not CWD.

EHD?

 

[madguy30]

EHD?

I think there's pills for it.

Call a Dr. if it's cured for more than 4 hours.

 

[cyclone101]

EHD?

Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease. It's killed far more deer than CWD ever will.

 

[NorthCyd]

Zero. I'm an avid hunter and deer meat is 80% of the meat eaten in our house. I have never and will never have them tested. And to be honest, it's kinda comical how some of it is handled. For example, if you take your deer to a locker (at least in southern IA) they'll ask you if your deer is from Missouri (MO has lots of "CWD Counties") Then they'll ask you if you've had it tested for CWD. If you are having it tested, they won't process it until the results come back negative. Whatever, fine. But they'll hop right to it if you haven't had it tested. ?

Personally I think it's being used to drum up fear and therefore more grants and funding. MO and WI both I believe have hired sharpshooters in the past to straight up exterminate deer. Essentially legalized wanton waste. To what end? These prions supposedly survive in soil for years if not forever. So kill all the deer so the prion doesn't get em first? Lol what?

These CWD programs are a wet dream for insurance companies - who you'll find lobbying at the Capitol for all the most aggressive and irresponsible policies that AREN'T favorable to the whitetail deer of Iowa.

Anyway... I'm ranting. I deeply care about the quality of whitetail hunting in our state and if the deer themselves were the priority, EHD would be what gets the funding. Not CWD.

Trying to manage CWD is not something anybody wants to deal with. It's a nightmare. It's not being exaggerated for funding purposes. The fact is these types of diseases have transmitted to humans before and if it happens it's fatal. If that happens who is everyone going to point at and blame for not doing a good enough job to manage the disease?