Study: Hunters Die After Consuming CWD-Infected Venison

[luckycraft]

This perfectly healthy looking mule deer had it in Montana.    My best friends boy shot it….   Wasn’t going to get it tested but was glad he did.    I’ll test.   What’s it hurt ?

[tjm]

3 hours ago, luckycraft said:

My best friends boy shot it

Did he keep any part of it?

What did the authorities there suggest or require he do with the carcass and antlers? Did they attempt to contain or clean the dirt where he left the gut pile? 

I ask because they have proven the prions can't be easily destroyed and it occurs to me that if the prions are in saliva, mucus, urine, stool etc., that they must also be in the antlers and other body parts? Once you touch any part of a diseased animal there has to be at least a possibility that your hands are contaminated and so will be the next cheeseburger you eat. I think it's been five or six years since I really looked into the causes, transmission, theories, and facts of these diseases; but even then the possibility of becoming infected from so many sources other than eating deer brains was enormous and the proof that even eating raw infected deer brains could infect us was non-existant.

I have come to think of testing and culling as CYA action on the part of game agencies; they can always say "we tried" "we did the best we could with the tools we have" even if they know it's all wasted.

Those gut piles become a reservoir of future infestation and if any vulture or coyote eats a part of them the prions from that deer can be deposited many miles away from the carcass site. 

4 hours ago, luckycraft said:

perfectly healthy looking mule deer had it

It's easy to speculate that perhaps many deer become carriers and never show symptoms. It would go far in explaining why traffickers in captive cervids transported diseased animals all over the country   introducing the disease into valuable antler producing herds in every state and province.  (back when CWD was first becoming a concern and for as long as I followed it's spread, every new incidence of it in a state that had never had any before seemed to be in captive herds or very near (just over the fence) captive herds, so it's easy to conclude a connection; but that too is speculation)

[luckycraft]

10 minutes ago, tjm said:

Did he keep any part of it?

What did the authorities there suggest or require he do with the carcass and antlers? Did they attempt to contain or clean the dirt where he left the gut pile? 

I ask because they have proven the prions can't be easily destroyed and it occurs to me that if the prions are in saliva, mucus, urine, stool etc., that they must also be in the antlers and other body parts? Once you touch any part of a diseased animal there has to be at least a possibility that your hands are contaminated and so will be the next cheeseburger you eat. I think it's been five or six years since I really looked into the causes, transmission, theories, and facts of these diseases; but even then the possibility of becoming infected from so many sources other than eating deer brains was enormous and the proof that even eating raw infected deer brains could infect us was non-existant.

I have come to think of testing and culling as CYA action on the part of game agencies; they can always say "we tried" "we did the best we could with the tools we have" even if they know it's all wasted.

Those gut piles become a reservoir of future infestation and if any vulture or coyote eats a part of them the prions from that deer can be deposited many miles away from the carcass site. 

It's easy to speculate that perhaps many deer become carriers and never show symptoms. It would go far in explaining why traffickers in captive cervids transported diseased animals all over the country   introducing the disease into valuable antler producing herds in every state and province.  (back when CWD was first becoming a concern and for as long as I followed it's spread, every new incidence of it in a state that had never had any before seemed to be in captive herds or very near (just over the fence) captive herds, so it's easy to conclude a connection; but that too is speculation)

They allowed him to pitch the meat and did come and get the carcass.    Hey man, to each their own.   Not arguing against people eating deer.   I’M CHOOSING, to test it before my consumption.   I’m all for people doing as they wish. And salmonella  from basil seems like a walk in the park compared to CJD.    
 

You can talk hypotheticals on transmission all you wish and deer being safe to eat….  My point is a test doesn’t hurt before you consume it.

[tjm]

But you have already been exposed before testing can take place. Sure testing doesn't hurt, but does it have any value?    If you or anyone was truly concerned about CWD being zoonotic you or they would not hunt  deer nor handle deer antlers nor use deer hair flies or bucktail jigs.

Think how all those state employees are endangering their lives by actually cutting the spinal cord and and collecting the material for the tests. If they had the least concern they would not touch those deer, you'd be doing your own testing.

[luckycraft]

12 minutes ago, tjm said:

But you have already been exposed before testing can take place. Sure testing doesn't hurt, but does it have any value?    If you or anyone was truly concerned about CWD being zoonotic you or they would not hunt  deer nor handle deer antlers nor use deer hair flies or bucktail jigs.

Think how all those state employees are endangering their lives by actually cutting the spinal cord and and collecting the material for the tests. If they had the least concern they would not touch those deer, you'd be doing your own testing.

So You would consume a positive?    

[fishinwrench]

33 minutes ago, luckycraft said:

So You would consume a positive?    

I know that "they" say that fully cooking does not kill the prion........ but how is that?  

What other form of life on this planet can survive FIRE ?    Oh wait, it's a PROTEIN 🤔  

Guess that complicates things, hu ?   Blinded by SCIENCE!  🫣

[luckycraft]

24 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

I know that "they" say that fully cooking does not kill the prion........ but how is that?  

What other form of life on this planet can survive FIRE ?    Oh wait, it's a PROTEIN 🤔  

Guess that complicates things, hu ?   Blinded by SCIENCE!  🫣

If a buddy invited you over and served you a venison dinner then said, by the way that deer tested positive for CWD,   Wouldn’t you be pissed?    It’d be Tilly time for me, before the dementia and agitation set it from CJD.

[fishinwrench]

9 minutes ago, luckycraft said:

If a buddy invited you over and served you a venison dinner then said, by the way that deer tested positive for CWD,   Wouldn’t you be pissed?    It’d be Tilly time for me, before the dementia and agitation set it from CJD.

If a buddy that didn't bother to get his tested before making sausage......gave you a couple sticks of summer sausage.....

Would you eat it ?

 

 

Do they make Test Kits so people can test them themselves....or do you have to go to some BS "test facility" ?   

[BilletHead]

7 hours ago, luckycraft said:

This perfectly healthy looking mule deer had it in Montana.    My best friends boy shot it….   Wasn’t going to get it tested but was glad he did.    I’ll test.   What’s it hurt ?

 Definitely test it if you want. Mine from opening weekend of firearms season was tested. Since it was in a CWD management zone it's was required. Barton county below me has had positive deer. I am not really close to where it's showing up. Mine came back negative. Have you seen how they test for it? Cut the throat and go way in and take a sample. I did not pay too much attention because a person was having me put on map where in the county it was taken. Contact info conservation number, phone number etc. I got a number and could check results after a period of time. Cannot remember how long that was. 

  Do you know what the voluntary process is for just checking? No way Man I was gigging you about checking especially if there are positives in your hunting area. If it shows up close I would test for sure. I have a friend who lives in hickory county and there has been positives in his county. Sharpshooters if you want to call them that right next to his house dumping corn piles. Those guys do nothing but kill, kill,kill. They are all supposed to be tested. The meat is not consumed but wasted. Three or four years in a row now. He now dislikes the MDC. He doesn't see the deer like he used to. I'm really not sure what the answer is to beating or staying ahead of this thing. 

[luckycraft]

14 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

If a buddy that didn't bother to get his tested before making sausage......gave you a couple sticks of summer sausage.....

Would you eat it ?

 

 

Do they make Test Kits so people can test them themselves....or do you have to go to some BS "test facility" ?   

I have in the past.    But definitely would cross my mind going forward.     It seems like the general consensus here would be to not know and not worry about it, and that’s fair and feasible.    I just don’t care for venison unless it’s jerky.   Just one more reason not to eat it.        

it’s also fair and feasible to think a person would be pissed if they consumed a positive unknowingly.  
 

In Montana all hunters must exit at game check stations.    His deer was checked and tested there