CWD Positive. What would you do??

realunlucky

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 20, 2013
Messages
12,624
Location
Eastern Utah
I don't understand people wouldn't eat a cwd deer but continue to hunt where there seems a high probability to harvest a infected animal. You should just move along or is the infected skull ok to just hang on your wall?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

H2PVon

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
195
Location
Western PA
We
I don't understand people wouldn't eat a cwd deer but continue to hunt where there seems a high probability to harvest a infected animal. You should just move along or is the infected skull ok to just hang on your wall?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

CWD isn't an issue where I'm at currently. But I will say that if it becomes an issue where I typically hunt and I have one tested positive that I was going to mount I will refrain from licking the skull.
 

realunlucky

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 20, 2013
Messages
12,624
Location
Eastern Utah
We


CWD isn't an issue where I'm at currently. But I will say that if it becomes an issue where I typically hunt and I have one tested positive that I was going to mount I will refrain from licking the skull.
Haha good call.
Here's my question though --
If you knew the probability was very high for cwd and all the meat would be wasted if you harvested it but did anyways is that much different than shooting it and just taking the head?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

ICEMAN86

FNG
Joined
Mar 2, 2017
Messages
39
Location
Idaho
Here's a fact sheet from the Idaho Fish and Game.
"Disposal of waste tissues and carcasses in a lined landfill may be the most acceptable disposal method to limit the risk of any CWD contaminated or infected tissues becoming available to deer, elk, moose or scavengers."
 

Attachments

  • CWD Fact sheet, Aug. 1, 2019.pdf
    40.6 KB · Views: 9

twall13

WKR
Joined
Jan 21, 2015
Messages
2,568
Location
Utah
Haha good call.
Here's my question though --
If you knew the probability was very high for cwd and all the meat would be wasted if you harvested it but did anyways is that much different than shooting it and just taking the head?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
In a way perhaps you are, but you'll also be removing a CWD animal from the population which helps slow the spread of the disease. The data provided from the testing also helps the biologists in research and understanding of how to manage for it. I'd rather have the meat but it's not all negatives to hunting those areas.

Honestly, I think most guys don't have the time or aren't willing to put in the effort to find a new area when they already know how to hunt a specific area, regardless of CWD. I know my father in law is this way. He's hunted deer in the exact same two locations for over 30 years. Now that he can't get that tag over the counter every year he's talked about giving up hunting.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

realunlucky

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 20, 2013
Messages
12,624
Location
Eastern Utah
In a way perhaps you are, but you'll also be removing a CWD animal from the population which helps slow the spread of the disease. The data provided from the testing also helps the biologists in research and understanding of how to manage for it. I'd rather have the meat but it's not all negatives to hunting those areas.

Containment zones haven't worked yet and they basically tried to kill every single deer.

States aren't hardly investing money in research if they are concerned about it how about putting some focus and thier money towards the issue.

When the outcome is what was expected simply based on odds, how can that be justified as a surprise?


Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

Shrek

WKR
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
Messages
7,069
Location
Hilliard Florida
I’d happily eat the meat. There’s no known risk to humans and the type of disease it is has a long incubation period. I’m 50 and I’m not likely to make 65 so it’s an infinitesimal chance of me suffering from it. If I was twenty I might pass but at twenty I was reckless with my life so chances are I would have eaten it then also.
 
Joined
Feb 10, 2017
Messages
885
Location
CO
I’ve probably eaten some CWD over the years without knowing it, but if I knew it was positive I wouldn’t eat it.

What I would do, is take the tag voucher you get for a positive deer and go shoot another one. Hopefully one that doesn’t have CWD
I was just looking into this in the CPW regs. Glad I saw your post because I wasn't seeing it in there.
 

H2PVon

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
195
Location
Western PA
Haha good call.
Here's my question though --
If you knew the probability was very high for cwd and all the meat would be wasted if you harvested it but did anyways is that much different than shooting it and just taking the head?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

We own the proberty we hunt. I will be hunting it regardless of if it's a CWD area or not. I will have the deer tested prior to eating if it becomes a CWD area.
At least that's the plan now. I am hopeful I have a few more years yet and things may change as more information becomes available. Haven't decided what I will do about traveling to hunt elk. On one hand I'm thinking a bull in the last stages of CWD may be the only opportunity I have for actually connecting.
Actually though, I have 2-3 more years before I have to decide this.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
Messages
661
Location
Truckee
Depends. If I haven't killed a buck for awhile than its getting eaten ( cooked fully of course ) . If I have meat in the freezer from game Ive put down than I'd maybe only eat the choice cuts but I'd eat some of it either way. Many critters we shoot are full of nasty stuff such as bears infested with parasitic worms in the actual meat we eat. CWD supposedly being isolated to the nervous system sounds better to me especially since I'm not a brain eater.
 
  • Like
Reactions: A 4

H2PVon

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 3, 2018
Messages
195
Location
Western PA
Depends. If I haven't killed a buck for awhile than its getting eaten ( cooked fully of course ) . If I have meat in the freezer from game Ive put down than I'd maybe only eat the choice cuts but I'd eat some of it either way. Many critters we shoot are full of nasty stuff such as bears infested with parasitic worms in the actual meat we eat. CWD supposedly being isolated to the nervous system sounds better to me especially since I'm not a brain eater.

Cooking does nothing to the prions.
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
Messages
952
Location
Colorado
Depends. If I haven't killed a buck for awhile than its getting eaten ( cooked fully of course ) . If I have meat in the freezer from game Ive put down than I'd maybe only eat the choice cuts but I'd eat some of it either way. Many critters we shoot are full of nasty stuff such as bears infested with parasitic worms in the actual meat we eat. CWD supposedly being isolated to the nervous system sounds better to me especially since I'm not a brain eater.


Just FYI- you can’t ‘cook out’ CWD and everything I’ve read states the concentrations of prions are in brain, eyes, spine etc....but the meat also contains the prions.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
Messages
661
Location
Truckee
Copy that in reference to cooking prions. I'll look more into it. I still am not a eater of brain. Spinal cord ? Uh .. No thanks. Eyes have never appealed to me either so I'm good.
 
OP
Sbarrera185
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
98
Follow up question:

If the animal does test positive for CWD can you or should you keep it for mounting? In a euro style mount is there still traces if the disease in it?

Personally I don't think I would eat the meat, there hasnt been any cases on people contracting it but I dont think I'll put my family or myself in a situation that might not have a cure at the moment.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Top