posted on August 3, 2002 01:08:20 PM new
Such a shame because I do like my venison. But the risk is too great. It is the next state from me - Wisconson. And that is not a nice way to die. The deer hunt is a huge source of money to the North of Michigan. If this is true they woill only hunt to try to stop the spread. Not to eat. I can't see any hope of killing enough deer to even slow the spread.
posted on August 3, 2002 05:56:19 PM new
I would wonder about the possibility of it jumping to livestock.... deer, elk and sheep are more closely related than deer and people...everyone worried about anthrax...THIS looks like something to worry about....
posted on August 3, 2002 05:59:25 PM new
p.s. thanks for the link gravid, I'm going to ask our local fish and wildlife guys about occurrences in my state's elk and deer herds...we don't eat venison, but always have at least one elk taken in our extended family which gets shared by everyone...might also ask the local livestock inspectors if they are aware......
posted on August 3, 2002 06:50:00 PM new
A fellow out in Colorado lost his entire Elk herd. He had it fenced in behind a 8 foot fence but deer need a 10 foot fence to stop most of them so they were the vector to the Elk. Lost everything and the state was not nice about it at all. From what I understand the prion spreads through the feces and after being grazed the land itself is contaiminated for years. Cooking temperatures don't kill it. It is so hard to kill that the bodies have to be incinerated completely like cremation. 400°+
The game people were carrying dead animals around in their pickup trucks and spreading it from hosing the beds out and tracking it all over with their tires. Nasty stuff.
[ edited by gravid on Aug 3, 2002 06:54 PM ]
posted on August 5, 2002 07:27:05 PM new
There is another very good article about this problem here...Who is to Blame for Mad Deer
The disease, he claims, is traveling faster and more effectively than nature could ever accomplish. He suspects this is due to the interstate transportation of game farm animals. And he blames the expansion of the disease on the game farm industry and state agricultural agencies that act more as game farm patrons than as regulators.
The outbreak is causing near hysteria in rural Wisconsin. The state plans to kill as many as 50,000 deer in the south-central part of the state, and deer hunters everywhere are left to wonder whether their venison is safe to eat. Research and anecdotal evidence suggests it is not. And that's scary news for the fourteen million deer hunters around the country.
