Hey guys/gals, Hope you all are having a great year in the deer woods so far. CWD is starting to creep it’s way into Tennessee now. I believe it’s been confirmed in 5/6 counties. There a lot of thoughts, info, scared people and conspiracy theories floating around. CWD has been a part of northern deer hunters lives for quite sometime now so I figured I would come straight to a good source. My question is more about the human consumption of meat from a deer in a CWD zone. This may seem silly to ask but has anybody ever died from eating an infected deer or had any effects? How do you guys approach it? Do you get every deer tested before you eat it Do you say to hell with it you only live once and eat it regardless or are you somewhere in the middle? And any other random thoughts/info on how CWD has affected your hunting would be greatly appreciated.
We had a really bad case of it a few years back here in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I found a good number of deer dead from it on the property I hunt. I know the game commission here now has testing stations so you can get it tested beforehand but I have not used one and don't feel the absolute need to right now... (maybe I'm wrong and should have my meat tested but i haven't yet)
https://www.tn.gov/twra The regulations booklet has information on CWD on page 2 and starting on page 33. Gives the counties, regulations, etc. This should answer your questions.
Yes, I read all the regulations but I guess I'm asking more about your personal thoughts on the matter. How it effects your hunting as far as dealing with it and more specifically eating venison form a "hot zone" How long have you guys had CWD in your area?
Our big outbreak of it was about 3 years ago I believe... This year was my first year shooting a deer off of that particular property since then and I didn't get it tested or anything, just ate the meat and didn't really worry about it.
I live and hunt on the other end of Tennessee, 400 miles from the CWD areas. Even at that, I think I would get it tested. Know several of the officers around here so no problem to get it tested. It seems that deer with CWD can be eaten but if you read the instructions starting on page 33, it is very specific how the deer are to be field dressed to avoid affected parts. Lots of information.
There is a lot of confusion between EHD and CWD. They are very different diseases, but I wonder about eating deer that could be infected with either. We do have a CWD hot zone fairly close to us now. It was first detected two seasons ago. Some guys are freezing all the meat and sending in a sample for testing. Others are not worrying about it at all, and sadly, some are just shooting the deer to shoot them and disposing of them. At this point, it is far enough away from where I hunt that I have continued to do my own butchering and have not had the meat tested.
You shouldn’t eat meat from a deer with CWD although there have been no confirmed cases of it transferring to humans according to the World Health Organization. They still advise to not eat it. To learn how to spot CWD and other diseases and how dangerous they can be, check out the article I wrote on the topic. https://omegaoutdoors.blog/whitetaildiseases Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
