dayna0306

What does it look like? I killed an old buck here in Pa. that looked very skinny and wore out it had no fat on it, thin neck and only wieghed about 110 lb. dressed very light for around here and the meat is rather dark and purple. what do you think and shoud I eat it?

wis_bow_huntr

do you have any pics of the deer? to me it sounds as if hes a pretty old deer. if you still have the head and brain attached, your local dnr station should be able to test it for CWD.

Tut23

yes i agree with him you should do this if you can

Kyle Colburn

he may of been old and then when rut kicked in he used up the little energy he had. i would definately take it to the dnr in pa

buckskinnerchris

Cronic Wasting Disease can be in any deer, elk & bison whether it looks healthy or not. The best practice is not to cut across any bones thereby you would not expose the central nervous system which is where CWD resides. I bone all animals coming in to my processing facilty without cutting one bone and have found it is actually a little easier when I do it this way. When I am done all that is left is a skeleton. You should always wear gloves when you handle the meat forsanitary reasons anyway. What you decribe seems to be just an old buck.

I have seen allot of sick deer in my time. The worst was a big 12 pt buck that had Blue Tongue disease. The animals tongue litterly swelled up so big that hecould not eat or drink and died a verypainful death (I was not present). The meat of a deer that has Blue Tongue can be eaten according to the DNR.

NY Bowhunter

From my understanding CWD has no effect at all on the meat of the animal or to humans. The deer that were killed here in NY that had CWD were donated for meat.

wis_bow_huntr

You ar ecorrect, CWD has no effect on the meat or the meat humans consome. CWD is a neurological disease that eats away at the neuro system of the animal. Even if you did cut the spinal cord, cooking the meat properly will kill ANY disease the meat may contain. This entire cwd crap is nothing less but hog wash. Id rather eat a deer with CWD than a coon that has been digging in my garbage.

buckskinnerchris

If what you say is true then why are there almost no deer processors that take the whole deer anymore and why is it that the lockers are required to process the deer individually although all the deer tested in Iowa have tested negative? Have you actually bothered to look at the science behind CWD? It is not hogwash as you might want to beleive. Ispoke with the head scientist at USDA that is studying CWD and he statednormal cooking of the meat infected with CWD would not kill the disease unless you cooked it at a very high temp which would make the meat unedible. I was told to not cut across the spinal cord , spine or any bone. When I removed the head only do this with a saw and/or knife I would not be using on anything else until it was properly sanitized with bleach.

Could you also tell me why the USDAhas built a new facilty (fall 2005)totally dedicated to the CDW disease?

What scientific basis can you state that totally negates the concern over CDW?

I'll be anxiuosly awaiting your answer because it would please me tono end if what the scientist stated to me was totally wrong. But I still would have to wonder why they built this building if we had nothing to fear.

North Texan

I was wondering where the government was going to find some guinea pigs.

Bow4Buc

I try not to let this affect the way I hunt But lets face it guy's hunting is worth billions in this country. Do you trust any local government to tell you the truth when it affects the bottom line? Here in Wisconsin we have been hit pretty hard with CWD in many areas. I'd like to think myself an ethical hunter and I eat what I kill. However I would have a hard time eating any animal I thought sick or diseased let alone feed it to my friends and family. Hunting is my love but I can't let it kill me.......