Hey all. Getting your opinion from anybody who has experience. I recently shot a black bear and sent the tongue off to the lab to get it tested. It came back positive for trichinella. I am pretty committed to getting rid of the meat. I got two young boys and don't want to risk an undercooked sausage causing them trouble, but am curious on wether I should get rid of the bear fat. I render in a crock pot on low. That is a temperature of about 200. I did put it on high for a bit too. They say you can kill the larva by cooking the meat above 165 so it seems like it would be fine? . I also thought the larva was only in the meat. Watcha think?

137* kills trick, If your afraid to eat it better stop eating pork too. I cook my smoked sausage to 155* then ice bath it. I have eaten a lot of bear meat.

wws

Ok I have no idea why you sent the tongue off to get tested in the first place, but I would not get rid of the meat based off that test.

I’ll send you my address for meat disposal. No charge!

Just get A good wireless meat thermometer and make sure to cook to 165 and you’re good to go. The cost of the thermometer will be far cheaper than the cost to replace the meat. You should normally be cooking bear to full Trich kill temp anyways so there’s really nothing special besides you KNOW you better do it in this case. Just don’t give any meat away and make sure anyone in your family cooking understands the repercussions of not following the strict cooking guidelines. Happy trapping! ScottW

Very unfortunate that people have this issue with bear. I am sure that the meat varies quite a bit due to the temperature, people not gutting right away, and other factors but bear has been the best game meat that I have eaten. Just cook the meat and enjoy it.

EVERY BEAR (virtually) will test positive for trich. Just cook it and enjoy.

I also have ate a lot of bear meat. Will eat bear over deer meat anytime and I like deer meat also.

I’m just going off of what I have heard others say. Also, I’m asking your opinions. This isnt my first bear, its the first one that has tested positive

The bear was quartered and on ice less than an hour after death. I sent the tongue because I like to know the results and that is the required sample they like to have. Its not a PCR test lol. Its a method of detecting the larva in the meat. Its a biomedical lab that had been testing livestock and game for a long time and all the other bears I have killed have been negative.

I have plenty of recipes. I know its tasty meat. I use bear fat more than most. Again Im just asking your opinions. Thanks

Dont forget just because a sample will test negative it doesnt mean the bear meat is definitively free of that particular parasite or other parasites.
Cook all wild game well done.
My favorite way to cook bearmeat is half inch or three quarter inch steaks in home made BBq sauce in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour.
Also produces tender fare from the toughest neck cut.
Stew is also a great way to safely cook wild meat.
I also make and fry or broil bear sausage mixed half and half with ground pork..
I make the sausage into half or three quarter inch pattys and cook to well done.
Bear meat is like no other meat-it is very good for you if you want to build physical stamina.
I dont use bear fat but many people want it so I either trade it or give it to elders.
I would think boiling it or frying it to render it down would make it safe.Not sure if the same parasites are in the fat as are in the meat of wild animals.

I'm assuming your "recipe" comment was at my link. Click on it, it's about trich and what temps and time is required to kill it.

I did click on it. I understand that you can cook the meat enough to kill it. Again, just getting opinions to formulate mine. Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked, and that said I am being swayed to keep the meat. Thanks for all the responses

I have an acquaintance that got infected a few years back. It always spooked me. My family only eats the meat that I harvest and we try to feed the kids the best thing possible. They are young. Trying to be smart about it.

Do what your gut feeling tells you to do .

It has only been in the last few years that pork has been considered trich free, and I would not trust that. I assume you have not been throwing pork away, no reason to throw bear away, just follow the rules for cooking it properly.

I didn't know about trichinella in bear meat. This has been an informative thread. I don't get to eat much bear meat, I consider it a treat when I do and I think it's delicious.

The information in the link Goneelkn provided and others I have read suggest that trichinella can be rendered harmless with proper cooking temps.

It would be a shame to have to discard all that meat but I completely understand you have to do what you consider best and safest for your family.

What bear doesn’t have trich

Some scholars speculate that's what ultimately did in Salomon August Andrée. Of course, we have better food preparation methods at our disposal than he did stranded in the Arctic.

sounds like heating the oil to 200 will more than kill anything in the fat. I am not sure that the trick is even found in the fat, for some reason I was thinking it was found in the meat. Maybe send some of the fat off to get tested.

In Montana virtually all bears and cats have trichinosis.

I'd throw it all away (meat). Otzi, the copper age Austrian "ice man" had trichinosis, and wound up dying from an arrow wound in his back. You can never be too safe.

I've eaten meat from 100+ bear.
Tric has never entered my mind.

Just for curiosity sake, are you one of the folks who eats rare/medium rare bear? Or do you cook it all to 160 or thereabouts? Happy trapping! ScottW

Cook it well done to kill trichinoisis. All bears have it because of what they eat, which is anything they find. Used to be all pork had it but the pig farmers have solved that pretty much.

My understanding is most/all bears will test positive for it. We eat a lot of bear meat in our house, I've never tested any for it, but I do follow some guidelines. I deep freeze ALL meat for atleast 48 hours. Have I thrown some fresh over hot coals and lived to tell.. yes. But if you are concerned, butcher it, freeze it, then cook to well done. Have I also eaten bear meat med. rare and lived to tell about it, yes. But I figure I can only play that game so long, so I try not to do that anymore. Always cook to an internal temp of 160.

Some of the fined game meat you'll ever enjoy, imho.

I don't temp probe it however I tend to over cook all meat.

I assume everyone on here has seen that meat eater episode. He caught it by eating undercooked bear meat in camp. Yes T is in the fat too. I guess its pretty common it just needs cooked through. If you were worried about having raw sausage in the freezer and then someday accidently not cooking one through and catching it... I'd say the answer to that before pitching it is to make summer sausage out of all of it so that it is cooked through before you freeze it. Canning it is probably another solution as properly processing it (time and temp) before storing it ensures the T is dead.

Have eaten lots of bear, cook it to temp and your fine. Just like pork. I didn't even know that you could test it. Lol

Thanks BNB, I was just curious if you had impenetrable guts! I know a guy who eats quite a bit medium rare like venison and I can’t believe he hasn’t gotten trich sick yet. I used to cook everything like you until I got married and found my wife wasn’t a fan of boot leather meat like me so I found a happy compromise cooking most of my venison and elk to 142-144ish then rest and eat. She gets her pink with a little blood and I generally get nicely done ends on the backstrap chunks for me! I tend to slow cooker my beat roasts and back straps either plain or corned. Happy trapping! ScottW

Just cook it well.

This^^^^

And every feral hog will too.

You can cook trichinosis meat to safety.