CWD - Spreading and testing

Ryan2782 · Feb 21, 2018

Does anyone have concerns of CWD and eating it?

Here's an article August of Last year - stating it has potential to infect humans
http://www.environews.tv/081517-ven...deadly-chronic-wasting-disease-moving-humans/

Here's a company where you can send a sample for testing and pay for the kits - Anyone ever use them? Or know of any other companies that do this?
https://www.sawcorp.com/

Would you eat an animal knowing it has CWD? In general, the animals can have it with out showing signs, therefore you would eat it with out knowing. If you saw an animal that was infected and in the process of dying, you wouldn't shoot it and eat seeing how sick it was behaving/looking. What concerns or steps should be taken, and based off of other articles/science and testing related with any proof that would back up your opinion that are of recent because prior years the studies have shown it can not cross over to people.

mplane72 · Feb 21, 2018

CWD is a hot topic in Iowa right now. Yes, I have slight concerns about eating it but more about feeding it to my kids. I submitted heads for testing on request this past season. I guess no news is good news.

I have seen reviews about the study you linked to. I find it questionable. How long has CWD been out west?

No way I would knowingly eat a deer with CWD. I think right now I am more concerned about what CWD spreading into Iowa means for the health of the deer herd and what our DNR's reaction to it will be.

Gellar · Feb 21, 2018

I live in the CWD zone in Iowa. I get all of my deer tested, its free, and do not process them until they are clear.

mplane72 - if you have not heard from the DNR by now, unless they were harvested in the special collection a couple of weeks ago in Allamakee and Clayton County they are clear. They were delayed this year with a shortage of tests, but they are caught up last time I talked to the DNR biologist.

Ryan2782 · Feb 21, 2018

To my knowledge, there is no reported cases in Idaho, Montana has reported cases now. With migrations it's just a factor of time. In Iowa, is your testing free when you turn in the heads? I had read that previously about testing. Not sure how sending in a head for testing works compared to a blood test mailed in from the above link.

Gellar · Feb 21, 2018

If you live in the CWD zone the Dnr comes to your house or they have a testing location and they collect a piece of the brain stem and a lymph node for an a and b sample.

fwagner · Feb 21, 2018

I live in the "driftless" area of Wisconsin and CWD is in all the counties. They have free testing stations set up so you can get your deer tested. I know some hard core hunters who won't even consider eating a deer that hasn't been tested and I also know some really good hunters with families who have stopped serving it to their families regardless of the test results. I personally would get my deer tested and would eat it if it came up negative, put I don't think I could eat a CWD positive deer.

Hunting Wife · Feb 21, 2018

Ryan2782 said:
Does anyone have concerns of CWD and eating it?

Here's an article August of Last year - stating it has potential to infect humans
http://www.environews.tv/081517-ven...deadly-chronic-wasting-disease-moving-humans/

Here's a company where you can send a sample for testing and pay for the kits - Anyone ever use them? Or know of any other companies that do this?
https://www.sawcorp.com/

Would you eat an animal knowing it has CWD? In general, the animals can have it with out showing signs, therefore you would eat it with out knowing. If you saw an animal that was infected and in the process of dying, you wouldn't shoot it and eat seeing how sick it was behaving/looking. What concerns or steps should be taken, and based off of other articles/science and testing related with any proof that would back up your opinion that are of recent because prior years the studies have shown it can not cross over to people.

The blood test is not yet approved by USDA APHIS for CWD testing. If you are really concerned about testing your animal, I would still go with the standard retros/obex testing the approved labs are doing for now. Your state should be able to help you figure out how to get them tested. Usually it’s free through the state.

There is no known case of CWD being transmitted to people, but in lab studies it behaves more similarly to BSE (Mad Cow, which is transmissible to people) than to other TSE’s so it can’t be ruled out. The chances of being infected are probably small, but the consequences are dire if it does happen. I personally will not eat an infected animal, but that’s something each person will decide for themselves.

88man · Feb 22, 2018

CWD has me worried about its potential major impact to hunting

High Desert · Feb 22, 2018

I wouldn't eat a CWD infected animal and I have all my animals tested whether they come from a CWD area or not (and I try to avoid CWD areas as much as possible). My theory is that if you have had your deer/elk processed commercially in a CWD region you likely have consumed prions. Statistically, the processor has almost certainly cut up and ground infected animals and, from what I understand, it is impossible to fully sterilize equipment. Perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong about this. I now process all my animals at home. It takes about 1-2 weeks for me to get the results back so I would have already cut up the animal. The question I have wondered is what do I do if the result is positive? Obviously, I get rid of the meat but how about the grinder and knives.

Ryan2782 · Feb 22, 2018

It's interesting, makes you wonder how many people don't test their animals whether voluntary or skip required reporting and eat the animals and have no effects and eat them because infected animals can show no signs of the disease. Because of no known transfers to humans as of yet, it could mean some people are sick and doctors either don't know what it is, or the person is being misdiagnosed. It would come down to family doctor, specialists, and what tests and blood work are being done and if they are looking for something specific or in general what's wrong. Comes down to who they see or how long or stubborn someone would be before they even go to get some sort of treatment for an unknown illness too. All speculation though. This year, I need to figure out how I can get testing done on my animals in Idaho this year and for future years. With the blood test not USDA Approved for testing - makes me wonder how reliable it is.

devon deer · Feb 22, 2018

I have put up a link before but only the Huntingwife expressed an interest and replied to it, you can help yourselves by learning to locate the lymph nodes, if they are swollen you have a sick deer, it doesn't mean it has CWD, it could be other problems like TB, but would you eat it?
I have found in the UK that any illness in a deer turns up first in the mesenteric chain, but not always!
Cheers
Richard

TBass · Feb 22, 2018

High Desert said:
from what I understand, it is impossible to fully sterilize equipment. Perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong about this. I now process all my animals at home. It takes about 1-2 weeks for me to get the results back so I would have already cut up the animal. The question I have wondered is what do I do if the result is positive? Obviously, I get rid of the meat but how about the grinder and knives.

Soaking in 50:50 bleach solution for an hour is cited as working. From what I've seen of even a 10% solution, it's fairly corrosive though. You could freeze quarters and process after getting results.

TBass · Feb 22, 2018

It's my understanding there's not a result that can be termed 100% negative because an animal can be positive with prion levels not high enough to be detected yet. Rather, the results are either positive or not detected.

joelweb · Feb 22, 2018

TBass said:
It's my understanding there's not a result that can be termed 100% negative because an animal can be positive with prion levels not high enough to be detected yet. Rather, the results are either positive or not detected.

That's probably right, but there are also zero known cases of CWD crossing the species barrier into humans. While likely to happen at some point, the risk is low. I think if a person's deer comes back negative, they shouldn't worry about it.

waygoner · Feb 23, 2018

I might switch to a disposable knife like a Havalon for dressing and processing.

Hunting Wife · Feb 23, 2018

The bleach soak works but obviously not all equipment can survive that type of treatment. Sampling equipment gets bleached, but it doesn’t last much more than a season. I would doubt a commercial processor would subject their equipment to that level of abuse.

TBass is technically correct about the test results- they are only as good as the sample and test allow. There is always the chance the sample you collected missed any infectious particles, and all tests have some known error rate. Figuring out the accuracy of tests is one part of that certification process I mentioned with regards to the blood test. People much smarter and better at math than I look at the data and calculate out all the probabilities for various types of errors and there is usually some threshold a sampling/testing method must meet to be acceptable and receive certification. With the standard testing method, the likelihood of errors are small, but they do exist. Given all of that, I think joelweb’s take on it is probably reasonable for a lot of people.

Devon deer’s link was a good one for showing general disease signs to look for when dressing an animal. I always paw through the organs to look for anything abnormal when I’m field dressing. You wouldn’t be able to see anything definitively CWD-related on visual inspection, but knowing where various lymph nodes are and knowing what normal vs abnormal look like are skills I think hunters should possess.

Laelkhunter · Feb 23, 2018

Sound serious. I hope wildlife biologists are able to eradicate it without impacting the hunting.

Ryan2782 · Feb 23, 2018

I'm going to start inspecting lymph nodes. In general, it's be good to know what appears normal vs abnormal. I'm starting to do more research on it now, just knowing that it's coming and will be ahead of the curve.

schmalts · Feb 23, 2018

Laelkhunter said:
Sound serious. I hope wildlife biologists are able to eradicate it without impacting the hunting.

Ain't happening.

Irrelevant · Feb 23, 2018

Laelkhunter said:
Sound serious. I hope wildlife biologists are able to eradicate it without impacting the hunting.

CWD is not something that will get eradicated. And it will affect hunting.

CWD - Spreading and testing

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