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rockies
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# Posted: 6 May 2018 06:40pm - Edited by: rockies
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Many people enjoy hunting but I've often wondered how safe the game meat is? The animal may be sick itself, or it may have lyme disease carrying ticks on it.
These sites have a lot of good articles on food safety.
https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/
https://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/december-2004january-2005/game-m eat-a-complex-food-safety-and-animal-health-issue/
https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/health-fitness/2010/10/your-game-meat-safe-ea t
http://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/sites/enr/files/field_guide_wildlife_diseases.pdf
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sparky30_06
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# Posted: 8 May 2018 07:06am
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I trust the wild game I harvest more than what is in the store. No telling where the stuff in the store has come from, how it was raised, how it was processed, how it has been stored, how many temperature swings it has encountered or who has touched it.
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FishHog
Member
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# Posted: 8 May 2018 08:23am
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I agree sparky. I think there is much lower risk eating what I shoot, butcher and freeze myself.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 8 May 2018 08:10pm
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Some WV deer have a brain wasting disease. Like mad cow disease. Spread by saliva, one animal to another, by hunters and others putting out "piles" of corn. Probably best to throw the corn around thinly, in a circle.
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cspot
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# Posted: 8 May 2018 09:05pm
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Quoting: sparky30_06 I trust the wild game I harvest more than what is in the store. No telling where the stuff in the store has come from, how it was raised, how it was processed, how it has been stored, how many temperature swings it has encountered or who has touched it.
I agree. There is danger possibly in anything that we eat. However if properly prepared and cooked you should be fine. I have had a few game animals over the years that once I skinned or gutted them their was something obviously wrong with them. They got disposed of.
DaveBell the disease that you are talking about is CWD. As of right now there has never been any proof that humans can get the disease from an animal that has it. Obviously I wouldn't eat a deer that I knew that had it though. The disease has been around in Colorado and other states for a long time without issue.
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sparky30_06
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# Posted: 9 May 2018 07:32am
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cspot
you are completely correct, my friend. CWD has been all over the midwest and is now in Texas. There has been no case of human CWD, then again i don't think many people eat deer brains, eye balls or a few other organs that it is found in.
When you are gutting and skinning or even before you get there you have a pretty good idea if the animal is healthy by the way it looks and moves. I too have disposed of a few.
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KinAlberta
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# Posted: 9 May 2018 01:29pm
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Moreover wasn’t it the farmers feeding sheep brains to cows that created the problem in the past. Seems rather unnatural do do things like this - but who am I to criticize that industry.
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rockies
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# Posted: 9 May 2018 07:48pm - Edited by: rockies
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I think the greater problem is "how do you tell if an animal is sick"? The disease may be contained within an insect on the animal, such as lyme disease within a tick. Out in the wild you're on your own. It seems to come down to "well, the animal didn't look sick".
Many foods (not just meat) get past government inspection agencies, plant inspectors, packagers etc and make it onto the store shelves only to be recalled because people do get sick. At least the store bought food can then be subjected to tests to determine the source and type of disease.
Are there any home kits you can use to test wild game for the most common diseases?
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Just
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# Posted: 9 May 2018 10:26pm
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Out in the wild you are on your own ,(and that’s the way we like it.)You can have your GMO, Steroid infused ,Colour enhanced, salt laden ,factory farmed ,protein and I’ll take my own life in my own hands any time I can,and eat wild any time I can .
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darz5150
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# Posted: 9 May 2018 10:38pm
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Quoting: rockies Are there any home kits you can use to test wild game for the most common diseases?
I used to use my worthless (now ex) son in law. If I had an " Iffy" piece of meat, or I if I dropped a piece in the dirt, I gave it to him. He survived!
I think my dog is happier than I am that he's gone. Now she gets his share. ðŸ•ðŸ–ðŸ‘
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sparky30_06
Member
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# Posted: 10 May 2018 07:52am
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Quoting: darz5150 I used to use my worthless (now ex) son in law. If I had an " Iffy" piece of meat, or I if I dropped a piece in the dirt, I gave it to him. He survived!
Don't hold back and tell us how you really felt about him!
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rockies
Member
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# Posted: 10 May 2018 07:22pm - Edited by: rockies
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Hmm. I suppose you're right. I mean, we should distrust store bought, federally inspected food (like meat) and prefer to eat wild game that has obviously led a "pristine life" (right up until the moment you put a bullet in it). And lord knows everyone manages to get that pristine carcass back to the cabin, skinned, butchered and in the freezer toot sweet so that it remains unspoiled.
But it's not just wild game running unspoiled in the woods! What about water? I mean, why drink from a municipal tap that is FULL of water that's been tested and treated and deemed "safe" to drink?
Much better to drink straight from the wilderness stream where that pristine deer just stood and crapped.
"But that was a mile upstream! There'll be no gastro-intestinal diseases for me! Nope! I'm of the wilderness! And nothing bad ever happens in the wilderness!!!"
Sorry, the giddy rush of wilderness testosterone is making me dizzy. Back to reality.
Anyone know of any test kits people can use to check if their wild game is safe to eat?
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cspot
Member
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# Posted: 10 May 2018 08:26pm
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Quoting: rockies Anyone know of any test kits people can use to check if their wild game is safe to eat?
No there is not. Of course just like if you boil water if you properly cook wild game it pretty much will kill anything that may harm you.
I am not sure with the drugs and stuff that is given to domestic stock that that meat would be better for you. Plenty of people have gotten store bought stuff that ended up making them sick. There are recalls all the time.
I think a little common sense and a little knowledge of proper food preparation and you will be just fine. If a person doesn't properly take care of the game animal and it makes them sick they have no one to blame but themselves when they are sitting on the toilet pooping their brains out.
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Malamute
Member
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# Posted: 11 May 2018 12:49pm - Edited by: Malamute
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Quoting: cspot No there is not. Of course just like if you boil water if you properly cook wild game it pretty much will kill anything that may harm you.
No, not necessarily.
There hasnt been a known instance of CWD/BSE/Mad Cow (similar disorder found in cattle and sheep) harming a human, but,...theres much we dont know about it, or alzheimers and dementia, which is basically the end result of CWD. Those are also things that take years to develop. Its not like "He ate this deer and a month later was incapacitated". It could be years or decades before it became apparent, and then its not likely anyone would know for sure what caused it.
In studying BSE/Mad Cow in England I believe, they took infected animal tissue and burned it to ash, and the prions were still viable. Cooking has absolutely zero effect on it.
CWD and Mad Cow mostly resides in brain, spinal cord, and bone marrow I believe. The last few deer I butchered I totally avoided cutting into any of those things. Some states will test your meat if you submit a sample. If I hunt deer again Id likely do that. The whole CWD thing has severly dampened my enthusiasm for hunting.
I'm not totally confident that all possible Mad Cow is found or the food supply is tested thoroughly enough to be found 100% in the US inspection system. When it is found, they track it back, but they never seem to be able to say how the animals got it, just that they found it. It doesnt just spontaneously come into being, it has to come from somewhere, and nobody knows where, so it seems reasonable that theres more of it than anyone knows or is willing to admit (as far as I go on tinfoil hat subjects). I choose to reduce the possible exposure by avoiding some meat products that use scraps and odds and ends, like beef sausage, pepperoni, and similar things. Ill take pork sausage, but avoid beef sausage as much as possible.
If none of this bothers you, awesome, drive on. Nothing to see here, have a nice day. 
Edit: BTW, when I do buy meat, I try to buy from sources that are local, not packed in Los Angeles or wherever and freighted in for the big name stores. Some stores also have both local and pre-packed. The ones with a real butchers counter with bulk burger and steaks is the ones that have local meat in my experience. I joking say that the pre-packed stuff was roadkill from Bolivia or someplace. The local meat has always been better quality. Some is known to be grass fed also. That may not be possible to procure everywhere, but is a nice thing about the rural west. I knew a guy that had a packing house/butcher shop, he said the local meat was actually local and knew the areas it came from.
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FishHog
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# Posted: 11 May 2018 02:33pm
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CWD is certainly a concern, luckily none has been detected in Ontario yet. Good news article I read in Cottage Life just recently.
https://cottagelife.com/general/good-news-zombie-deer-disease-probably-cant-be-transm itted-to-humans/?utm_source=Dockside_Alysha_Editorial_May10_2018&utm_medium=Email&utm _campaign=Dockside_Alysha_Editorial_May10_2018&utm_source=Cottage+Life+Newsletter&utm _campaign=c7ebe6c658-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2a4b4abf7b -c7ebe6c658-231666833&mc_cid=c7ebe6c658&mc_eid=926a884ede
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 11 May 2018 06:21pm
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Eat more vegetables. Organic and local if possible. Grow them yourself if you can.
Mostly now I just watch the deer and the elk and they watch me. A friend has hogs and I get a little pork from him. I have chickens that get I provide with organic non-gmo feed. More tasty than regular store bought; the coyotes seem to like them too. I hardly ever eat beef anymore.
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rockies
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# Posted: 11 May 2018 07:18pm
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I suppose the point I was humorously trying to make is that once you start providing your own food you're completely on your own. So much is written about testing your water, taking a water filter with you when going into the wilderness and never trusting that a mountain stream is really "pure" but hardly anyone questions whether the wild game they consume is safe.
As to eating more vegetables, right now in the US more than half the States are being hit by a romaine lettuce recall because the plants might be infected with E Coli. If infected lettuce can slip through the inspection process and sicken people why would eating wild game be any safer than eating commercially produced meat?
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