Be Safe when Eating Bear Meat!!!!!!!!

[BuckSnort]

dbaker, hope I didn't come off as an azhole, wasn't my intention..Just thought it was crazy for a doctor to say something like that...I love eating wild game too, just never anything that carries Trichinosis again... Just be sure to cook it well done, I don't wish what I went through on anyone especially young ones..

 

[JG358]

dbaker, hope I didn't come off as an azhole, wasn't my intention..Just thought it was crazy for a doctor to say something like that...I love eating wild game too, just never anything that carries Trichinosis again... Just be sure to cook it well done, I don't wish what I went through on anyone especially young ones..

Not really crazy, He said "cook thoroughly and enjoy" not cook medium rare and dig in.

 

[BuckSnort]

Not really crazy, He said "cook thoroughly and enjoy" not cook medium rare and dig in.

No... The doctor didn't say that... He said this... "when i asked my family doctor he said he'd be more hesitant to feed them 90% of the beef sold in stores/restaurants based on the way it's raised and processed."

That's what I thought was crazy... I bet of that 90% of the beef, none have Trichinosis.... I agree with the doc for game that is not a known carrier of the Trichinosis parasite... But if MOST bear meat has Trichinosis it's foolish for a doctor to say what he said...

 

[JG358]

No... The doctor didn't say that... He said this... "when i asked my family doctor he said he'd be more hesitant to feed them 90% of the beef sold in stores/restaurants based on the way it's raised and processed."

That's what I thought was crazy... I bet of that 90% of the beef, none have Trichinosis.... I agree with the doc for game that is not a known carrier of the Trichinosis parasite... But if MOST bear meat has Trichinosis it's foolish for a doctor to say what he said...

I'm sure the doctor was refering to properly cooked bear meat. You know of any cases of people getting trich from properly cooked (well done 165*) bear meat? I can understand your position on bear meat after what happened to you, I'd most likely want to eliminate the risk as well if it happened to me.

 

[BuckSnort]

No, I don't know of any..... And a couple of my friends have the same argument... I look at it like this... You can probably have copulation with a woman infected with HIV and be safe as long as you had protection... But, it ain't worth the risk... Sorry for the bad analogy but it's the best way to get my point across..

 

[aggieland]

I have read enough and after seeing that guys CT Scan with 1/4 of his brain missing.. I won't be eating any bear meat, If someone really knows that their meat is cooked well enough etc go for it. But This guy had the parasites in him for a long time before he got sick, and I don't think he will ever be the same. He was shipped to a larger hospital for care so I have no idea if he made it or not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Man this is eye opening can't say I am too crazy about eating a bear now

 

[Mike7]

Medically speaking, most times the danger you know and can deal with appropriately is much safer than the dangers you are unaware of.

If you don't want to take any chance, then a person should probably not eat any uncooked meat, drink any mountain stream water, or skin any animals without rubber gloves. I've seen far more cases of campylobacter, samonella, and vibrio cholera infection from undercooked contaminated hamburger and shellfish and raw unrefrigerated milk, than cases of trichinosis. You are pretty safe from these bacterial infections with beef/elk/deer cooked rare in the steak form, but then you still run a small risk of prion/chronic wasting infection/mad cow disease from eating these steaks which are lightly cooked. Also, anyone who has ever lived and worked on a ranch, knows that sick cows usually go to the butcher, because they are not good for anything else after all.

>95% of the cases of these food born and water born infections (i.e. Giardia, cryptosporidium, etc.) that I have seen are associated with people not using a water filter, refrigerating items appropriately, or cooking things appropriately. Are all of these precautions full proof? No, but they do lessen the risk significantly, and your body can usually deal with a certain level/load of pathogenic bacteria without getting infectious symptoms. Also, you can get trichinosis from poultry even apparently, but I haven't seen that.

I must say, I am a "wussy", I don't eat any uncooked meat at all, but would eat and have eaten cooked bear meat. I filter all water (why not, it's so easy, and is psychologically reassuring even if not 100% effective). I do live on the wild side and often skin animals bare-handed or just wear light leather gloves to reduce the risk of getting a serious laceration in the backcountry. I've only ever seen one serious infection from skinning though, and it wasn't big game, but rather the classic Tularemia from a guy who had been skinning wild rabbits.

 

[JG358]

I have read enough and after seeing that guys CT Scan with 1/4 of his brain missing.. I won't be eating any bear meat, If someone really knows that their meat is cooked well enough etc go for it. But This guy had the parasites in him for a long time before he got sick, and I don't think he will ever be the same. He was shipped to a larger hospital for care so I have no idea if he made it or not.

What about pork? After all, that's what the guy you saw got it from.

 

[Mike7]

P.S All is not lost, at least a guy should be safe from "hookworms" while walking barefoot around camp in the high country, as the hard winter freezes are supposed to kill those little parasites.

 

[dbaker]

well said Mike7. everything we do has inherent risk. we just choose what risk we take on. people get hurt hunting we choose to hunt. people get hurt in automobiles we choose to drive. whatever risk we take we should do our best to minimize it (thoroughly cook and use a meat thermometer). in the end its up to the person as to what risks to take. in bucksnort's case it's totally understandable not to want to eat bear meat but i don't think it's any reason to not hunt, kill and eat thoroughly cooked bear meat. but to each his own.

 

[Mike7]

Dbaker, agree. Many times personal experience and emotion trumps any statistics (whether the statistics are accurate or not) when it comes to making decisions regarding our safety. I personally must have come from an ancient tribe of cavemen who periodically fell from heights or were hit by lightening, because those survivors who passed on their genes to me clearly had a more than generous fear of heights and electricity.

Are you primary care? I'm currently FP in N. Idaho.

 

[bigeasygator]

Bucksnort, I understand where you're coming from. When I heard dbaker say that I thought to myself that sounded like a pretty irresponsible doctor too. It sounds like there's a much greater risk eating bear meat than there is beef (based off of foodborne illness infection rate). I've eaten beef for 30 years and, to my knowledge, have never been sick off of it. My guess (just a guess, I don't know) is that the doctor in question didn't know the trichinosis risk of bear meat. Does that mean you shouldn't eat bear? No. Just that I'd say you need to take many more precautions in doing so than you would with store bought beef. From that standpoitn I'd question what the doctor said. But again, that doesn't mean you shouldn't eat bear meat!

 

[MattB]

I agree with the "irresponsible" doctor. Cooked properly, bear meat does not present a health risk. Contrast that to beef which many people prefer improperly cooked (rare/medium rare) and sickens many each year (google E. Coli 017H7 as an example). Mad cow, although VERY uncommon, can't be cooked out of beef and CJ is not even treatable. So which meat is more dangerous? The meat that can be made completely safe with proper cooking, or the one that folks often prefer under cooked and can harbor the vector for at least one disease that cannot be killed by cooking?