What say you??????????

[berettabone]

We were heading back from up nort, when the wifey told me that her friend had been given some elk meat by her daughter. Her friend is a nurse, and asked the daughter if it had been tested for chronic wasting disease. She replied that she really doubted it. Mom says there's no way she's eating any of the meat. She explained to her daughter that because of these little nasty things called prions, it is a death sentence to get this disease because there is nothing that will kill the prions, and they developed to do one thing. Eat your brain............................................I thought about it and told the wife that there is a lot of CWD here in this state, in the deer population, and the DNR had an elk herd quarantined for a long time. So I said to the wife, you must be taking a big chance eating any deer meat, especially when you can't always tell when a deer is infected with the disease unless you get the deer tested. The wife said that she heard that the state will test your deer for a $5 fee, you just have to get it there. Or part of it anyway. No one I know has ever admitted to getting their deer tested or mentioned it to me. So, what say you?????????? Is this friggen Russian roulette eating the deer you just shot? What's the chances of getting a bad deer? I don't eat nor do I like venison(yes I have tried it) The wife said that she heard that the DNR says it's getting out of control in the population. It's big business up here. Billions of denaro flow like water up here. The hotels, the restaurants, the strip clubs, etc. 750,000 people(and I use that term loosely) are in the woods, looking for bambi. Would you even take a chance eating a deer you hunted?? Not me, hell no. Not even close to worth it. I don't care if you fill your freezer tight, and don't have to buy meat for a year. What needs to happen is they need to shutdown regular hunting for at least 2 years. Give hunter's a license to cull the deer population. Get rid of all of the visibly infected deer in the population, and cull the herd down enough to eradicate it. Probably never get rid of it all, but try to control it. Now, all of this cuts in to everyone else's business profits, and I don't know if they could take going 2 years or more without their livelihood. But if nothing is done, it will gradually decimate all of the deer, then there is nothing......................... I just think that of all the people who hunt to eat, no one is getting this disease? With so many deer having CWD, are they just getting lucky? Is it inevitable that it could be coming soon? I've hunted many different things when I was younger, but for some reason, not bambi. Just couldn't shoot one I guess. I mentioned to the wife that the coyotes in the area always look thin and scraggly. CWD?????????

[Ken L]

When I lived in Wisconsin, I hunted deer and ate the venison. My family all ate it. Left WI in 2010. Moved to Colorado, where there have been reports of CWD in elk, deer (both mulies and whitetail) and moose. I eat the venison from the elk I harvest.

[kenemoore]

Well....lots of folks deer hunt down my way. All the hunters I know eat what they kill. Never heard or read about anyone catching anything. The season here is so long, and the deer population so large, lots of competition for food. Deer usually only last 3-5 years at most. 3-5 pointers are most common, rarely does someone get one larger. Maybe it only infects the seniors, who knows.

I do not hunt anymore, not since my teens. But I do take venison from friends every once and awhile. Maybe I should stop. Hmmm.....

[Bawanna]

I'm gonna talk to my doctor, wonder if I got that CWD, that would explain a lot.

[ltxi]

I'm gonna talk to my doctor, wonder if I got that CWD, that would explain a lot.

CWD should not be confused wiith early onset CS.

[AJBert]

The thing about CWD is that there has not been a single case where it has transferred from and animal to a human. It is a devastating disease to the animals, though.

That being said, I'm sure that many people have eaten animals that had CWD. I've hunted most of my life and have eaten every thing I've shot. This includes deer and elk. So far no drain bamage that I can tell. Where I've hunted there have been no cases of CWD though there were quite a few cases in other areas of the state a few years back.

And getting back to your question if I would eat the elk meat? Yes.

[berettabone]

Mad cow disease spread via contamination from nervous tissues. Hundreds of millions of beef meals were served before it adapted to human hosts and killed more than 100 people before we caught on. Many scientists believe that it's not a question of if CWD will transfer to humans, but when. A couple of men from Michigan back in 2002 died from a particular brain disease after consuming CWD deer for years on their property. The odds of them both passing from the same brain issue are astronomical. Russian roulette???????? I say yes.