I've seen a few posts about folks having their kills tested for CWD before consumption. After a quick Google search, I'm not confident that I am swayed any more one way or another. I don't see any recorded cases of animal to human transfer.

I KNOW that we have CWD in VA and I would have to assume that I've consumed affected meat. For those who test, is there anything published that I can find and evaluate that means enough for you to have done so?

it doesn't cost anything here, so I figured why not?

(more for my peace of mind if others eat my jerky)

Meat is safe. When in doubt, don't eat the organs.

I would have my deer tested IF I had taken it from a CWD area. It is the lymph nodes that are tested. I took a mule deer in Wy and submitted the lymph nodes from the neck for testing and had results (negative) in about 1 week. I don't know how long testing takes here in Va.

I would not eat an infected deer. That is a personal choice.

Last year I sent in my neck glands from my elk to get tested the GFP put out an information video on it that was helpful. More and more States are dealing with this but we seldom get updates on how it’s going to know what’s working or not.

There currently is no documented case of deer to human transmission. This is partially due to the fact that enough prions (abnormal proteins) have to be injested to build up a testable/positive load.

Monkeys is a lab setting were fed infected venison and none contracted CWD. But, they were injected the prions and contracted CWD. Hence, the Center for Disease Control recommends not to consume known infected vension. How will you know if its infected? Get it tested.

Takes about two tablespoons (10cc) of infected deer saliva to infect another deer. Current info is it takes slightly less contact with urine & feces.

Takes 1600°F to destroy the prions. Bleach seems to have a destroying effect on the prions also.

First known case was in late 60s in a research facility in Colorado. 36 states currently have known positives.

A very similar form of these abnormal protein diseases (aka mad cow disease) did make the jump to humans thru beef consumption. To my knowledge, the sheep version (scrappie) has not made the human jump.

Here in Georgia, CWD was first detected last season. We are now up to eight positives and counting. All of those have came from a two-county area in South Georgia......actually about a 10 miles linear stretch of land area.

Hunters opinions of CWD down here are mostly non-chalant. Most folks are not taking it seriously and not opting to utilize the State's free testing.

Im not playing that Russian Roulette as long as I have the testing option available.

I didnt know you were a veterinary medicine/neurological disorders doctor. You should've let us know your field of expertise sooner! Outstanding!

We test when required too and and we had 1 cow elk tested because we were giving away the meat. She ended up being positive so we ate her and gave away a different elk.
We have seen cwd elk and deer in the filed, it is not pretty but you know they are sick when you see them.
Don't shoot a sickly looking animal.

We are right smack dab in the endemic area of Wyoming, the ranch we work for shares a fence with the research facility it supposedly came from. WE see few sick animals but a few over the years.
Drought had affected the deer herds more so than CWD imo, predators don't help either.

That monkey study could not be replicated and yes they injected the prions right into the brains.

A little humor on this.
A few years back I shot a very old cow elk but never got her tooth aged.
Last year souse shot the positive cow elk I mentioned above.
Well when we sent her nodes in for cwd testing I sent in the old cows teeth from a few years back.
We had a 12.5 yr old cow that tested positive for their data.
I bet the lab folks shook their heads at that, lol.


This year we had our deer tested, I didn't want to but the hubby works in the state lab building and the head gal asked him to get them tested for more data. Both are mature deer, mine looks to be at least 6.5 yrs old.
To her surprise both were negative. Age will come back in Feb. but we laughed at both being negative, she was pretty convinced at least 1 would be positive.

Hubby had a nice talk with her about getting all cwd tested animals tooth aged too so they had better data, she agreed.
Hard to argue we have no mature deer in this area without tooth ages to back it up, we have 30 years of tooth aged bucks. All over 4.5 yrs old. And only 1 positive deer.

We've never tested our deer... I guess we should though.

Incubation time from contraction to symptomatic has recently been moved back. It is now known that a deer can show physical symptoms as soon as 18 to 24 months after the contraction.

A few of the 8 positives found here in Georgia recently were 2.5 years old and younger. A couple of these deer were skin and bones and one was found recent dead.

Earlier info was that deer would be much older (4.5 +) before they showed any physical symptoms of CWD.

There is a concern here about the younger age progression and the obvious rapid progression of physical symptoms. DNR personnel are thinking our CWD zone may be further progressed and not a "new" area at all, but a more advanced rate in this area. In other words, its detrimentally affecting the population already in this area.

I would like to see the DOCUMENTED pics of your 2 young whitetails that were "skin & bones" when found...along with associated epidemiological lab reports indicating prion detection in the obex and retropharyngeal nodes.

That's what we were told in WI by the "experts" when cwd was a big deal. It's not anymore.... remember follow the science. Lol....as far as my education in veterinary medicine, why would I let you or anyone know on a website. I keep my personal life personal.

It’s popping up in ky everywhere. FWD won’t admit it because it is big money. We didn’t have it until they brought elk here. I remember in the 80’s reports of it at land between the lakes. Well they have an elk reserve there we drove by when we hunted there back then. Brought them to eastern Ky. It’s spread from there Can’t remove an animal from the area but they bring a live animal from out west
As for eating the meat Freeze it cook it until it’s done

Thanks for all of the replies, but again, is there any documentation that says this is a problem for humans? There have to be thousands of folks who have eaten affected meat. I'd have to think that testing has maybe identified <1% of the deer harvested???

Ain’t no telling how many of us have eaten CWA infected deer if they don’t show symptoms for 18-24 months. So basically 2 years prior to the first case, an unknown amount of deer could’ve been eaten in that time frame.

Really wish there was a study showing whether buzzards eat deer that are infected. Recently found two deer dead and one has been almost totally eaten and the other is rotting in place. No I’m not concerned about it because our rut is ROUGH and intense on bucks and does, which is one of each that I’ve found. If antler mass is any indicator of age of a buck, then this guy was ancient. When your hands barely fit around the bases, that’s some serious mass. The doe most likely had been run to death. It’s very common to find dead deer this time of year. It’s possible the buck could’ve been shot on another property and made it to ours. I would’ve definitely released an arrow just because of mass alone.

There is NO documented evidence that a human has ever been infected.

And as WannaBe stated, probably thousands of people have eaten an animal that would have tested positive. Maybe 10's of thousands.

3togo, I'd go 100,000's of thousands! Never existed until it was tested for. I believe it has always existed.

No...there is currently no known human that has contracted CWD from eating venison from a CWD-positive deer.

You seem to have a little knowledge....contact Georgia DNR Game Management and ask to speak with Charlie Killmaster. He is the head deer biologist. You will probably need some fed or state creds to get that info.

I'm just a retired state GW that was hired as a contractor two years ago & pulled the nodes from Georgia's first positive deer last year and now I continue as a contractor gathering samples weekly. I'm also on the state's deer disease committee for planning the next statewide deer management plan.

But, you may know more than me. I've seen the pics of two of those deer, but I dont have access to the lab reports as that is a communication between the Georgia DNR staff, the University of Georgia, and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. Positives from Georgia were (and may still be) sent to a lab in Iowa for secondary confirmation.