To eat or not eat CDW positive tested deer

Turbodude

Active Member
Oct 17, 2017
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Red side of Ca
Curious what the problems would be or have been established from the the consumption of a deer testing positive for CWD. Friend of a friend harvested a buck that tested positive & does not what to do with the buck at this point.
 
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JimP

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Mar 28, 2016
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The studies that I have seen say that it is fine to eat them and that there are no documented cases of CWD being transmitted to humans either by contact or eating the meat.

I would however avoid eating any organs and or lymph glands
 

JimP

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Mar 28, 2016
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I know that the rules that are posted for Colorado is that all meat from a CWD area must be boned out with the bones and skull being left at the kill site or area. Now if you want to bring the skull home it needs to be clean with no brain matter left inside the cavity and dry, same with the skull cap if just bringing the antlers home
 

kidoggy

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Apr 23, 2016
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I thought........CWD was in the spinal and brain fluid. I was taught if you don't sever the spinal cord and get that fluid on the meat or bust open the brain cavity and get that fluid on the meat you were fine.

Is that not the modern take on this now and has it changed ?
maybe it had the delta CWD?????? ;)
 
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taskswap

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Jul 9, 2018
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I think the big concern isn't so much "could it harm you today." It's that these things can mutate over time. The worry is that enough human consumption over time could eventually lead to a mutation/strain that can infect humans. Personally, if I ever had this situation I think I'd keep the meat but just make sure it was all thoroughly cooked. Nothing coming out of a stew pot after 8 hours is going to be a problem.

Actually I'm a little confused by the current testing strategy. The thing is, (almost) none of us pack out the entire animal. That spinal cord is staying in the field CWD or not, and I haven't heard of any plans to go retrieve them by hunters or CPW. And we have these stories of game cameras showing that deer at least do eat off carcasses from kills - they aren't 100% herbivores. I'm not a rocket scientist but that seems like the bigger danger. You have this CWD-positive animal... and it's just an entry in a database?
 
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00BUCK

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Feb 23, 2011
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CWD has been around for a long time. Way before most of us ever heard about it, or have been hunting, and maybe longer then all of us have been alive. Many hunters, and friends of hunters have consumed positive CWD game meat over the years. Not one person has been known to have side affects from it. The key word is "KNOWN". Scientists have never found that it can affect humans but they have not ruled it out. If you have ever seen a deer with CWD in late stages I think that this would be an easy question to answer. Don't eat deer meat that is knowingly positive for CWD.
 

shootbrownelk

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Apr 11, 2011
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CWD is similar to "mad cow disease" or jacobs disease that can infect humans and kill them. The Mad Cow disease was the result of grinding up bones and waste products from cattle, turning it into feed for cattle. Happened in England and people died from eating meat from infected cattle. You roll the dice and take your chances.
 
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JimP

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Saying that CWD is similar to mad cow disease is about like saying that the common cold is similar to Covid.

In all the years that the DWR's have been reporting about CWD I have not read one thing about it being passed on to humans. Every publication that I have seen says that there are also no reported cases of CWD being passed onto humans. Quite unlike "mad cow disease" which can be transmitted.