You guys are comfortable eating deer meat??

CWD is present here and I am concerned about it to a reasonable degree.I have seen some really scroungy looking deer upon occasion.I assume they have it.
I do take advantage of getting a voucher from the DOW and dropping the heads off at the Colorado State University Vet school.I get it tested.
The other thing I do not do is eat every piece of venison sausage that gets offered to me.
Typically,a processor does not make sausage with just one deer.They make a large batch and mix the meat from several deer ,then portion it out to the customers.Your one stick might have seven deer of unknown origin in it.That is a little spooky to me.
If you go to the Colorado DOW website they will have some good CWD info.
they also offer a DVD on a in the field bone out technique that is supposed to help.
I did read an account of a Special Forces troop who received a dishonorable discharge because his behavior was becoming unacceptable.It was later determined(perhaps through autopsy) that he had contracted Jacob- Crutchfield,supposedly from eating the eyeball of a goat he was served while doing his SF thing on a mission.Through his fathers efforts of presenting the case,the dishonorable discharge was reversed....

Deer,goat?Who knows?
One factor in spreading the outbreak was elk ranching.Apparently captive heards are far more prone to it,and animals from an infected herd were sent to a number of states before it was understood.
 
Yes, I am. right now

HI,
Here I am, taking a lunch break with a juicy Sirloin Steak (Blue Wildebeest) from my most recent hunt. so I guess my answer is yes, very much so.

My wife and son also enjoy Venisson, at least twice a week.

Brgds,

Danny
 
Looks like GA get the all clear to me:
http://www.cwd-info.org/index.php/fuseaction/about.map
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp

I haven't read the entire thread so someone may have offered to do this already, but, out of the goodness of my own heart, if you will invite me to GA to come hunt and shoot deer I will eat them and be your food tester/canary in the mine so to speak. That way every year after the 1st one when I come back to hunt and seem normal, or at least not real different, you can assume all is/was well.

Selfdfenz
 
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I am in a CWD zone and the only change I have made is I don't eat the tongue heart or liver anymore because I can't get any wildlife biologist to tell me yes they know those organ meats are safe and then they go on about the brain and spinal cord which I already know about. Most of the deer I have had are young deer and it takes awhile to show up so the older deer are more likely to have it than the youngsters.
 
I never cared for venison from here in California. All the ones my dad brought home had been eating chapparal or sagebrush and were gamey tasting. Now if you ask me about wild pork.... That I eat regularly. Yesterday, I ate some breakfast sausage I made from a boar I took a couple of months ago. All my wife would say was ,"MORE!"...
 
Deer sausage and peperoni sticks, the whole deer! Tasty stuff. I have heard of sick deer spotted up here in the Pacific NW but have never seen one. Not too worried about it.
 
Folks,understand please,I live dead center in the middle of where CWD became an issue.
It may be more of a big deal around here.I still eat elk(which are CWD animals) and deer but I do believe it is worthwhile to go to the Colorado Division of Wildlife's website and read up on CWD,then make your own choices.
 
HiBC said:
Folks,understand please,I live dead center in the middle of where CWD became an issue.

So do I. ;)

My deer hunting takes place in Utah and Idaho. My Elk hunting takes place in Utah, but they very easily could be Wyoming or Colorado Elk. All of these states are heavily affected by the disease.

CWD is a scary disease; I agree. However, there have been no confirmed links between cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (human "mad cow"/CWD) and mad cow disease in the U.S., and no cases of CWD being transmitted to humans - ever.

....Scary - Yes.
A realistic threat - Absolutely Not.

Clean it. Cook it. Eat it.
 
Yes I do like it. It needs to be cooked correct, and it is great. I think some folks did not have it cooked correct, and got a bad taste. Just like any other meat if you cook a porterhouse bad it is not so good. There are some great recieps out there.
 
There's hasn't been a case of CWD within 100 miles of me. The area where it was detected was a single animal and every animal taken and/or found dead in that general vicinity has been tested for a few years since and not a single other case has been detected.

Yes, I'm perfectly comfortable eating venison.
 
That said, you'd have to eat the brains or spinal cord to contract CWD from what I understand.
That is my understanding as well. Which makes a rather convincing argument against using head/neck shots on animals you intend to eat. Splattering CNS tissue around when CWD is a possibility probably isn't such a wonderful idea.
 
JohnSKa said:
That is my understanding as well. Which makes a rather convincing argument against using head/neck shots on animals you intend to eat. Splattering CNS tissue around when CWD is a possibility probably isn't such a wonderful idea.

Recent studies comparing CWD to BSE (mad cow) stumbled upon the fact that the offending prions are present in skeletal muscles, as well. Pretty much all we eat of Deer and Elk is skeletal muscle. The incubation period for the disease can also be upwards of ten years. So, to completely avoid CWD... one must go back in time, and eat herds that are known safe today.... or, quit eating CWD vulnerable species, altogether.
(All information is available on the Colorado State website, websites with their published papers, and the CDC website. If I post links, I'll fill the page.)

To sum CWD up, it comes down to the saying: "It's time to put up, or shut up." .... Eat it, or quit hunting.
(Killing for "trophy racks" and the thrill of the kill is as unethical as gut shots and sawing heads off - in my opinion. If you don't eat the meat, get out of the woods.)
 
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I'm still hunting and I hunt meat.I eat it.I am not about collecting the trophy instead of the meat.
I do not suggest anyone else should quit.
I do suggest anyone concerned about CWD learn from what the researchers offer and make informed choices.

While this disease in one form or another has been around a long time,local legend identifies some deer in a research pen that may have had contact with local deer as an initial source of the known outbreak.An elk ranch that operated a little east ,then sold and shipped the elk is generally credited with rapidly spreading the infection to several statesThe laws on elk ranching changed,.We have head collection points in the CWD hunting areas and Colorado State University performs the tests.I have taken heads to them to be tested.The tests came back OK.

If we make a loose connection to HIV,we do not all need to take up celibacy ,but reasonable education and awareness before making our own free choices is not a bad thing.
 
I need to clarify real quickly...

My previous post was not intended to accuse any posters of being trophy hunters that saw heads off, or anything else unethical. It was a general statement aimed at some of the unethical things I see while hunting.

Re-reading my post today, I realized it sounded fairly derogatory toward posters here. That was not intended.

The wasted meat aspect of my comment is mostly (but not entirely) derived from my time in Florida. It was "standard practice" for the majority of the hunters to cut the heads off the bucks, and let the body rot. I don't blame them, they were worm-infested, nasty swamp deer. However... I still really gets to me, when an animal is killed and not consumed by the hunter. If the animals are too sick to be eaten... don't hunt them.

So, in addition:
If you believe CWD is a threat, end up with a CWD positive animal, and choose to take the options afforded by your state - I understand. I don't hold that against anyone.

As I said, I just wanted to clarify the final sentence in my previous post. I think it still applies to the discussion, but the statements are not, and were not intended to be aimed at anyone here.
 
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