Deer Meat from Diseased Herd Allowed into Food System

[MikePal]

This is disturbing...WTF !!

MONTREAL — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is exposing the public to unnecessary risk by allowing deer and elk meat from farms affected by a contagious disease to end up on consumers’ plates, a group of experts and advocates say.

Chronic wasting disease or CWD, an infection of the central nervous system similar to mad cow disease that is fatal to deer, elk, reindeer and moose, was discovered on a farm in Quebec’s Laurentians region last August, resulting in a cull of 2,789 red deer.

While the 11 carcasses that tested positive for the disease, as well seven others, were destroyed, the rest were allowed to enter the food system, including some 1,000 young animals that had not been tested because tests aren’t sensitive enough to detect CWD in animals under 12 months of age, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

“If you’re supplying meat, deer meat or elk meat or whatever from a farm in which animals have tested positive for CWD, if you provide it to the market for human consumption, that’s playing with fire in my opinion,” he said in a phone interview.

He points to an ongoing study that suggests CWD can be spread to other animals, including macaque monkeys, as well as the case of mad cow, which was originally not believed to be dangerous for humans but was later linked to a rare degenerative brain disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob.

https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pm...to-food-system

[huntnmachine]

Very disturbing indeed !!

[gbk]

Wow-so we are not able to collect or receive free doughnuts (to be thrown out )from Timmies(for bear baiting),restaurants are not allowed to reuse scrap food from restaurants( as pig feed ) ,YET someone can SELL for heavy $$$$ all the suspected meat(from a known infected heard)
WOW- something is wrong BIG TIME!

[Snowwalker]

So any thing you buy could be bad. No wonder there are so many recalls and problems with food......AFTER people are getting sick or dying.

Is it not ironic that people would turn their nose up at deer meat that we shot, but will pay big dollars for the same thing in a restaurant. The worse thing is that the deer we shot is likely safer.

[trimmer21]

This kind of nonsense seems to be going on all over north America. CWD was first detected in farmed Elk in the US almost 25 years ago. Since then,it's spread to every area that has a Deer/Elk range virtually unchecked. Why? Likely because money talks and commercial exotic farming operations have deep pockets which buys a lot of political influence that runs interference for adverse lobbying efforts within the health industry itself. Corruption runs deep. Every one of the commercial farming operations should have been shut down,completely,years ago,but,here we are still dealing with this issue years later. I was under the impression Ontario shut down all Deer farming operations long ago. How wrong that thinking turned out to be.

[werner.reiche]

Not really that disturbing - and it's consistent with the handling of beef - so just a bit of alarmist reporting.

Unless something has changed in the last few years with BSE testing, cattle under 18 months are not tested, and older cattle are only rejected/destroyed if they test positive for BSE.
Both BSE and CWD are slow developing diseases that take longer than the 12 or 18 months to develop to a detectable level.

[gbk]

Not really that disturbing - and it's consistent with the handling of beef - so just a bit of alarmist reporting.

Unless something has changed in the last few years with BSE testing, cattle under 18 months are not tested, and older cattle are only rejected/destroyed if they test positive for BSE.
Both BSE and CWD are slow developing diseases that take longer than the 12 or 18 months to develop to a detectable level.

Thanx Werner-does this means -if the cattle herd has BSE,the sick ones are destroyed ,the rest is sold as is?

[MikePal]

No this news is disturbing ...allowing untested 'young' animals to enter the food change is not a good thing.

All animals that are exposed to CWD are suppose to be destroyed according to the CFIA guidelines. Only the ones tested (12 months or older) that are found negative are allowed to be released for human consumption.

In CWD-positive VHCP herds at level D or higher and herds that were exposed to the index animal in the previous 18 months (herds of residence), all CWD-exposed cervids will be destroyed and all animals over 12 months of age will be tested for CWD. Destruction may occur on farm or at an abattoir where full ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections are carried out.

Mature animals that are slaughtered and test negative for CWD may be released for human consumption. Disposal options for other animals that are ordered destroyed are as follows: burial, incineration, or via commercial specified risk material (SRM) channels.

[glen]

Mmmmmm. That really gets the appetite going.
I will not be buy any of that over priced deer farm meat.

[Gun Nut]

“Experts are not sure what causes mad cow disease or vCJD. The leading theory is that the disease is caused by infectious proteins called prions (say "PREE-ons"). In affected cows, these proteins are found in the brain, spinal cord, and small intestine.

Prions cannot be destroyed by boiling, alcohol, acid, standard autoclaving methods, or radiation. In fact, infected brains that have been sitting in formaldehyde for decades can still transmit spongiform disease. Cooking your burger 'til it's well done won't destroy the prions!

This can happen if you eat nerve tissue (the brain and spinal cord) of cattle that were infected with mad cow disease. ... There is no evidence that people can get mad cow disease or vCJD from eating muscle meat—which is used for ground beef, roasts, and steaks—or from consuming milk or milk products.” ??????????????????????????????

Veggie Burgers Anyone!

Now you know why the fast food industry are making An effort to push them.

You don’t stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut