I'm in one of the CWD zones in Wisconsin. This is our second season knowing about the disease. Last year lots of hunters did not hunt, or eat venison because of fear of the disease. This year things are closer to normal and our zone had one of its highest harvest rates in recent years (mostly due to the "earn a buck" rule where you must shoot a doe, then you get a tag to shoot a buck).
At our resistration station almost evey doe and some bucks had their heads lopped off to be sent in for testing. We should know in about a month or so the results. Since this is our second year it will be interesting to see how much the disease has spread.
I am not worried about contracting CWD. I butcher my own deer along with the deer of several friends. Other than some mild facial twitches I ffffeell ffffine.
Maybe Strut & Rut can shed some more light on this but from what has been stated by the University of Wisconsin, U of Iowa, and the Wisconsin DNR is that a human could actually eat the brain of an infected deer and not catch the disease (however they are reccommending to NOT eat the brain, spinal column, or bone marrow. Mmmmm bone marrow stew.). For those of you that don't live in a CWD area, don't give it a second thought. Just watch our state and see what's happening. If a bunch of Packer fans turn into flesh eating zombies remember you will have to shoot us in the head to kill us.