butcher shops and CWD
08-15-2002, 05:35 PM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Elizabeth Colo. USA
Posts: 4,413
butcher shops and CWD
I've read that there are some butcher shops in Colo. that are not going to take any wild game meat for processing this fall, without proof that the animal is CWD free. I wonder how many other areas are going to face this delima. Some butchers have been reported as to refuseing to take any wild game, period, due to the chances of spreading the disease into other processed meat. Are there any other states that have this same delima? This may be a sign, that if you don't know how to process you're own meat, it may be time to learn!
08-15-2002, 08:19 PM
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: CWD Central, WI.
Posts: 2,062
RE: butcher shops and CWD
Howler: Last I heard the local butcher in Mt.Horeb WI. (CWD Central in WI) will not be taking any deer this fall. I checked with my local guy in Black Earth and he said it will be no problem taking deer this fall.
08-19-2002, 09:27 PM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Earth City MO USA
Posts: 231
RE: butcher shops and CWD
I have never taken a deer in to be processed. I am always worried about someone bringing in a spine shot deer (with warnings about spinal fluid and all that) or the guy who drags his deer to all his buddies houses to show em, then drops off a deer that hasn't been cooled real well. I worry about not getting back MY deer, which I know was taken care of the way I want it.
My friend Matt and I can take a hanging deer and have it all wrapped and in the freezer, cut into whatever we wanted, in under 3 hours. Its work, but I think its the best way to do it. The first time I did it it was some work to figure out, but now its easy.
--Jim
My friend Matt and I can take a hanging deer and have it all wrapped and in the freezer, cut into whatever we wanted, in under 3 hours. Its work, but I think its the best way to do it. The first time I did it it was some work to figure out, but now its easy.
--Jim
08-20-2002, 06:07 AM
#4
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 612
RE: butcher shops and CWD
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/aug02/67399.asp
Deer butchers hunt for answers
Workers say they've received no guidance on chronic wasting disease
By JOHN FAUBER, MARK JOHNSON and RICK ROMELL of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Aug. 17, 2002
Town of Blue Mounds - During last November's deer hunt, moonlighting meat cutters hired by Dick's Quality Meats worked into the night to keep up with the carcasses brought in by area hunters.
The trade was so brisk that by the end of each day, the blade on the shop's band saw often was worn out. It had cut, lengthwise, through the spines of as many as 80 deer. After each cut, the same blade also carved off steaks and chops from each of the animals.
Located a few miles west of Mount Horeb, the deer processing shop is in the zone where chronic wasting disease was discovered this
year, the first time the deadly neurological disorder has been found in wild deer east of the Mississippi River.
The disease, which is related to "mad cow" disease, is thought to be caused by rogue infectious agents known as prions that accumulate in the animal's brain, lymph nodes, spleen and spinal cord - the very area sliced into by the band saw at Dick's Quality Meats and other butchers.
Last fall, state-regulated butcher shops such as Dick's Quality Meats and numerous smaller, unregulated deer processors had no way of
knowing that chronic wasting disease had moved into Wisconsin. Now, their deer-processing practices are in the spotlight because of the
potential for spreading prions from diseased tissue to meat that may be eaten by hunters and their families.
Prions, a type of misfolded protein, are resilient agents that can't be destroyed through normal cooking or sterilization measures. When doctors perform autopsies on people who died of a prion disease related to chronic wasting - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - they wear double gloves, gowns, masks and eye shields.
"You don't want this stuff landing in your eye,"
said Patrick Bosque, a neurologist and prion
researcher at Denver Health and the University
of Colorado.
Stronger disinfectants and higher temperatures than normally used in hospitals are needed to sterilize their instruments.
There has not been a documented case of the disease jumping to humans, but some health officials say there is reason for concern.
Domestic animals such as cows, sheep and pigs must be inspected while the animal is alive and again after it has been slaughtered. That's not true of wild game.
"There is no inspection of those animals," said
Terry Burkhardt, director of the state's Bureau of
Meat Safety and Inspection.
What's more, some of the butchers who will be processing Wisconsin deer this fall said that so far they had received little, if any, guidance from the government about what to do.
Richard Dickman, owner of Dick's Quality Meats, said no state official or meat inspector had told him what precautions he should take.
"I'm probably one of the biggest processors around here," said Dickman, who has processed deer for more than 40 years. "I've got no answers."
Tim Williams, a meat cutter and sausage-maker at Mark's Meats, a large, Minneapolis-area deer processor that handles animals from Wisconsin, wants answers, too. Federal meat inspectors are in his plant almost daily, but none has been able to tell him what to do about deer.
"I'm upset about it," Williams said. "This (chronic wasting disease) has been around since 1967. For them to say they can't offer some guidance is ludicrous."
No clear regulations
Burkhardt said his office had mailed a list of "common-sense precautions for handling and processing deer" to 350 state-licensed meat plants. The precautions also have been posted on the Web site of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
But the state doesn't license all meat plants, only those that sell their products within Wisconsin. Plants that sell meat out of state and also process deer take their direction from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Although the USDA has no guidelines for processing wild deer and elk, the agency is preparing instructions for inspectors at plants that handle farmed deer and elk.
"That's working its way through the channels," said Matt Baun, a spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Yet another group of deer processors, grocery stores and other food establishments is regulated by the state, or in some cases by city or county health departments acting on behalf of the state.
Finally, there are some deer processors that aren't regulated at all. No license is needed for someone who does nothing but process wild deer, and such businesses - many of them small, temporary operations - appear to be common. Randy Davis, a 60-year-old Dodgeville resident, restores classic cars, but for a couple of weeks during the hunting season, he puts a sign on his property advertising deer processing.
Davis sets up shop in his two-car garage. Using a band saw, grinder and knives, he carves up between 100 and 200 deer a year. He, too, cuts through the spinal cord. Afterward, he cleans his equipment with soap,water and disinfectant.
"Thing about it is, soap doesn't kill this wasting disease," he said.
Davis said he may change his practices or even stop butchering altogether because of chronic wasting disease.
How many other deer processors operate out of garages or other makeshift shops in Wisconsin isn't clear.
"I have no idea how much of that goes on, although I think it's quite frequent," said Ken Bisarek, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors.
One thing that must stop, according to infectious disease experts, is the practice of using the same blade to cut through both nerve tissue and meat.
"I can't think of any worse procedure to do," said Dennis Maki, a professor of medicine and head of the Section of Infectious Disease at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics' Center for Trauma and Life Support.
G. Richard Olds, an infectious disease expert and chairman of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said knives and saws that cut through nerve and other tissue that may harbor prions should never be used to cut meat.
"That's just what we have to stop," Olds said.
Based on information learned from reporters, Dickman and Williams said they planned to stop the practice.
Last season, Dickman's deer operation, which is separate from his meat market in Mount Horeb, processed between 1,000 and 1,200 deer. Most came from the area that now is part of what has become known as the eradication zone - the area where the state Department of Natural Resources is trying to eliminate all deer in an attempt to clear out all the infected ones.
Williams' plant processed about 800 deer last year, including about 100 from Wisconsin.
Homemade approach
In Black Earth, meanwhile, meat processor Michael Danz welcomes
government advice, but he hasn't simply been waiting for it.
Instead, the owner of Black Earth Meats, an eight-employee slaughtering, processing and retail operation that handles both livestock and game, has done his own research and has hammered out a plan for processing deer.
He's had good reason to do so.
A 34-year-old hog farmer, Danz bought Black Earth Meats just 18 months ago. Then he found himself in the heart of the chronic wasting disease zone.
"I thought, boy, what luck - first year opening a locker plant and then be right in the middle of the circle," he said. "I had a lot of sleepless nights."
Deer are crucial to Black Earth Meats. Revenue from the 500 processed last year made up about 30% of the business' overall sales. And deer processing is particularly profitable.
"If we had no deer season, it would be really hard to keep this place open," Danz said.
But as important as deer processing is to his business, he said he would abandon it immediately if scientific research found that it wasn't safe.
Danz's plan for the coming hunt includes removal of deer heads outside the plant, avoiding spinal cuts, soaking knives overnight in bleach, and using a coding system that will allow hunters to later check if their animal was healthy or diseased.
Such an approach makes sense, said Glenn Schmidt, a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University who has conducted research into detection of central nervous system tissue in meat products.
"That's about as thorough as you can be," Schmidt said after hearing a detailed description of Danz's plan.
Some state processors likely will receive guidance soon from the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors.
Bisarek said the organization would recommend that processors not cut through the spinal cord or bones, or into the brain cavity. Heads should be moved away from the processing area, and equipment should be cleaned with a chlorine sanitizer such as bleach, he said.
But some scientists advocate stricter measures.
Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said all deer should be tested for chronic wasting disease before any processing is done.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 18, 2002.
Deer butchers hunt for answers
Workers say they've received no guidance on chronic wasting disease
By JOHN FAUBER, MARK JOHNSON and RICK ROMELL of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Aug. 17, 2002
Town of Blue Mounds - During last November's deer hunt, moonlighting meat cutters hired by Dick's Quality Meats worked into the night to keep up with the carcasses brought in by area hunters.
The trade was so brisk that by the end of each day, the blade on the shop's band saw often was worn out. It had cut, lengthwise, through the spines of as many as 80 deer. After each cut, the same blade also carved off steaks and chops from each of the animals.
Located a few miles west of Mount Horeb, the deer processing shop is in the zone where chronic wasting disease was discovered this
year, the first time the deadly neurological disorder has been found in wild deer east of the Mississippi River.
The disease, which is related to "mad cow" disease, is thought to be caused by rogue infectious agents known as prions that accumulate in the animal's brain, lymph nodes, spleen and spinal cord - the very area sliced into by the band saw at Dick's Quality Meats and other butchers.
Last fall, state-regulated butcher shops such as Dick's Quality Meats and numerous smaller, unregulated deer processors had no way of
knowing that chronic wasting disease had moved into Wisconsin. Now, their deer-processing practices are in the spotlight because of the
potential for spreading prions from diseased tissue to meat that may be eaten by hunters and their families.
Prions, a type of misfolded protein, are resilient agents that can't be destroyed through normal cooking or sterilization measures. When doctors perform autopsies on people who died of a prion disease related to chronic wasting - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - they wear double gloves, gowns, masks and eye shields.
"You don't want this stuff landing in your eye,"
said Patrick Bosque, a neurologist and prion
researcher at Denver Health and the University
of Colorado.
Stronger disinfectants and higher temperatures than normally used in hospitals are needed to sterilize their instruments.
There has not been a documented case of the disease jumping to humans, but some health officials say there is reason for concern.
Domestic animals such as cows, sheep and pigs must be inspected while the animal is alive and again after it has been slaughtered. That's not true of wild game.
"There is no inspection of those animals," said
Terry Burkhardt, director of the state's Bureau of
Meat Safety and Inspection.
What's more, some of the butchers who will be processing Wisconsin deer this fall said that so far they had received little, if any, guidance from the government about what to do.
Richard Dickman, owner of Dick's Quality Meats, said no state official or meat inspector had told him what precautions he should take.
"I'm probably one of the biggest processors around here," said Dickman, who has processed deer for more than 40 years. "I've got no answers."
Tim Williams, a meat cutter and sausage-maker at Mark's Meats, a large, Minneapolis-area deer processor that handles animals from Wisconsin, wants answers, too. Federal meat inspectors are in his plant almost daily, but none has been able to tell him what to do about deer.
"I'm upset about it," Williams said. "This (chronic wasting disease) has been around since 1967. For them to say they can't offer some guidance is ludicrous."
No clear regulations
Burkhardt said his office had mailed a list of "common-sense precautions for handling and processing deer" to 350 state-licensed meat plants. The precautions also have been posted on the Web site of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
But the state doesn't license all meat plants, only those that sell their products within Wisconsin. Plants that sell meat out of state and also process deer take their direction from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Although the USDA has no guidelines for processing wild deer and elk, the agency is preparing instructions for inspectors at plants that handle farmed deer and elk.
"That's working its way through the channels," said Matt Baun, a spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
Yet another group of deer processors, grocery stores and other food establishments is regulated by the state, or in some cases by city or county health departments acting on behalf of the state.
Finally, there are some deer processors that aren't regulated at all. No license is needed for someone who does nothing but process wild deer, and such businesses - many of them small, temporary operations - appear to be common. Randy Davis, a 60-year-old Dodgeville resident, restores classic cars, but for a couple of weeks during the hunting season, he puts a sign on his property advertising deer processing.
Davis sets up shop in his two-car garage. Using a band saw, grinder and knives, he carves up between 100 and 200 deer a year. He, too, cuts through the spinal cord. Afterward, he cleans his equipment with soap,water and disinfectant.
"Thing about it is, soap doesn't kill this wasting disease," he said.
Davis said he may change his practices or even stop butchering altogether because of chronic wasting disease.
How many other deer processors operate out of garages or other makeshift shops in Wisconsin isn't clear.
"I have no idea how much of that goes on, although I think it's quite frequent," said Ken Bisarek, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors.
One thing that must stop, according to infectious disease experts, is the practice of using the same blade to cut through both nerve tissue and meat.
"I can't think of any worse procedure to do," said Dennis Maki, a professor of medicine and head of the Section of Infectious Disease at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics' Center for Trauma and Life Support.
G. Richard Olds, an infectious disease expert and chairman of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said knives and saws that cut through nerve and other tissue that may harbor prions should never be used to cut meat.
"That's just what we have to stop," Olds said.
Based on information learned from reporters, Dickman and Williams said they planned to stop the practice.
Last season, Dickman's deer operation, which is separate from his meat market in Mount Horeb, processed between 1,000 and 1,200 deer. Most came from the area that now is part of what has become known as the eradication zone - the area where the state Department of Natural Resources is trying to eliminate all deer in an attempt to clear out all the infected ones.
Williams' plant processed about 800 deer last year, including about 100 from Wisconsin.
Homemade approach
In Black Earth, meanwhile, meat processor Michael Danz welcomes
government advice, but he hasn't simply been waiting for it.
Instead, the owner of Black Earth Meats, an eight-employee slaughtering, processing and retail operation that handles both livestock and game, has done his own research and has hammered out a plan for processing deer.
He's had good reason to do so.
A 34-year-old hog farmer, Danz bought Black Earth Meats just 18 months ago. Then he found himself in the heart of the chronic wasting disease zone.
"I thought, boy, what luck - first year opening a locker plant and then be right in the middle of the circle," he said. "I had a lot of sleepless nights."
Deer are crucial to Black Earth Meats. Revenue from the 500 processed last year made up about 30% of the business' overall sales. And deer processing is particularly profitable.
"If we had no deer season, it would be really hard to keep this place open," Danz said.
But as important as deer processing is to his business, he said he would abandon it immediately if scientific research found that it wasn't safe.
Danz's plan for the coming hunt includes removal of deer heads outside the plant, avoiding spinal cuts, soaking knives overnight in bleach, and using a coding system that will allow hunters to later check if their animal was healthy or diseased.
Such an approach makes sense, said Glenn Schmidt, a professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University who has conducted research into detection of central nervous system tissue in meat products.
"That's about as thorough as you can be," Schmidt said after hearing a detailed description of Danz's plan.
Some state processors likely will receive guidance soon from the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors.
Bisarek said the organization would recommend that processors not cut through the spinal cord or bones, or into the brain cavity. Heads should be moved away from the processing area, and equipment should be cleaned with a chlorine sanitizer such as bleach, he said.
But some scientists advocate stricter measures.
Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said all deer should be tested for chronic wasting disease before any processing is done.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 18, 2002.
08-20-2002, 06:09 AM
#5
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Northern Illinois
Posts: 612
08-20-2002, 08:29 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Elizabeth Colo. USA
Posts: 4,413
RE: butcher shops and CWD
One thing that my family does, is to de-bone our deer meat before we take it to the butcher. This saves us money, although I know some butcheres shop won't take de-boned meat. I would think that if all hunters did this, without sawing through any bone, it would help insure that the disease was not spread. That is if the nasty little prions are only in the brain tissue or spinal fluid. For years, we have processed our own elk, guess it's time to start doing our own deer too.
08-21-2002, 04:04 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Elizabeth Colo. USA
Posts: 4,413
RE: butcher shops and CWD
well, 2eagles, I still plan on doing like we always have. Any deer we kill on the Ks. farm, we gut it where it falls, get to the shop, hang it and skin soon after that, then depending on how cold it is, we may let it hang a week, then debone it and take the bones and hide out in the pasture for the coyotes, crows, and other scavengers, they clean it up pretty well. But, the elk we've gotten here in Colo., we process at my uncles house, and usually neighbors come and take almost all the bones for thier dogs, the rest we put in trash for city pick up. Now, with the possiblity of CWD, I plan on doing the same, but, I don't hunt in any areas that have tested positive for the disease, yet.
08-29-2002, 09:08 PM
#10
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Independence IA USA
Posts: 1
RE: butcher shops and CWD
The Cedar Rapids Gazette here in Iowa had a write up in the paper on Wednesday about this very thing. All lockers got a notice to not process any deer from Wisconsin. They also went on to talk about some lockers not taking any deer at all. The one in Arlington is not going to be and the Edgewood and Newhall lockers are going to look into it after Labor Day. There aready talking about higher prices, which I think are already to high. At the Gander Mountain store in Cedar Rapids there were a couple of guys who say they aren't going to take any chances and that they know of others who aren't planning to go hunting for deer either. Is this getting out of hand since there have been to cases here in Iowa? Not saying there isn't. I still plan on going to Wisconsin to hunt with some of the wife's relatives.
Al
Al
