One hour, 45-minutes from hang up to in the freezer. Took me longer because I have a landowner who wants some hamburger, So, I took special pains trimming the chunks for ground meat.
Everything clean and now, a shower and knives sharpened for the next one. This is vac-pac #1 for 2017.
Only difference is that I like to let the enzymes do their job for 9-10 days before packaging.
Carl
Ok, I will say it. DUH! Guess I need my caffeine in the morning before responding to intelligent humorous posts.
I live in the core endemic area where CWD was first discovered. People have been eating infected deer and elk here and elsewhere for at least 60 years, likely much longer. The incidence of CJD-V (the human form of spongiform encephalophy) is lower in our county and the surrounding counties than the national average. There is absolutely no evidence of CWD making the jump to predators or humans, even though researchers have been trying to force the jump for over 50 years. Nobody I know even bothers to test anymore.
C'mon man.. I know it's the internet, but do some fact-checking before spouting nonsense.
BTW, we're all dying a slow death. Some have it more horrible than others (depending on how bad their marriage is...)
The meat I'll eat gladly.
Totally false. To date, no evidence whatsoever that CWD can jump a specie barrier. Also, no evidence it can be spread by eating the meat. I was a student at UW when it was discovered. It was found in some elk that came from CSU and they originally came from live-trapping in CO. Not a doubt in my mind, CWD has been in cervids since there have been cervids. I also believe, there is no such thing as a CWD-free state. If that state has cervidae, in all probability, in my opinion, they have CWD. It just has not been detected. To me the three greatest dangers in the spread of CWD are as follows: (1) Penned or contained cervidae. (2) Transport of live cervidae across state lines. (3) Baiting or supplemental feeding. Notice, I use the word Cervidae instead of deer. That is because CWD has been found in elk, moose and caribou-all cerivds or members of the deer family. Now. How big a threat is CWD to the wild deer population? It is exactly as big as it was 50-years ago and probably long before that. It is a miniscule threat if compared with EHD-Blue tongue. Many times more deer will die of EHD and vehicle collisions than from CWD. In some areas, it can be somewhat significant. In one area of WY, recently, deer tested showed 40% positive. But they did not say how many deer were tested. If they tested 10 and four had it, that is 40 %. But that is not the same as testing 1,000 and 400 had it. So, be careful what you read and believe. BUT..if you see a sick deer, I believe you should be allowed to kill it and not use a tag. However, you must immediately report it and you get to keep none of it. I got a call just about eight hours ago from one of my neighbors, saying he had a deer in backyard that appeared sick. I went to check and we could not find it. I was carrying my rifle and had full intention of shooting it if it did in fact, appear sick. IN many areas, the deer population today, is ripe for a major epidemic. Ma Nature has her own system. (Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.) But I know what the one yesterday died of.) CWD-Couldn't Wait to Die.
They've also found it in South Korea. Some researchers now suspect it may not be caused by prions at all, but instead by a "super bacteria", and the prions (folded proteins) are a by-product.
I used to fish with the former manager of the C.S.U. deer pens where it was first identified. He believes those penned deer got it from nuzzling infected deer outside the pens. When I worked with a Wall Street Journal writer on an article about it, we interviewed old time ranchers in the core area who told us they've seen it in the wild deer since they were kids, and they're old men now. If it was truly dangerous to humans, we'd have a bunch of infected hunters and families all over the country.
I'm with Bowriter, and believe it's been around for a LOOONG time. The only difference is that now they test for it and wherever they test for it they seem to find it. Hmmm...
Unfortunately that is no longer true. There is a study currently underway in Canada that has infected macaques (small monkeys) with CWD by eating muscle tissue! NOT neural tissue.
Everything else above is true: It has been around for decades and there has never been a single case of like disease in humans that can be traced to eating CWD meat. So, do I have any problem personally eating one: No. However, I would think twice about feeding it to my grandkids or to a person on chemo taking immunosuppressive drugs.
Here is a youtube video of a CWD conference. They talk about the research with the macaques at the 1 hour 31 minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vtt1kAVDhDQ
Here is a lively discussion on the subject as well:
http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID5/24542.html#22
The really sad thing is that with scrapie, you can kill all the infected animals and you eliminate the disease. But when the prion mutated into deer, something changed and it is able to survive in the environment for years and still infect new deer. At CSU, they removed the topsoil in those pens, treated the ground with lime, then put new topsoil back and even after years, deer in those pens still come down with CWD
TXhunter, I used to be on that side too until doing the interviews with Livermore ranchers for the Wall Street Journal article, and also with the manager of the deer pens at the time. Old timers reported seeing CWD-like symptoms in dead and dying wild deer in the area for decades before the C.S.U. deer pens even existed. And it doesn't explain how it spread to Norway, South Korea, isolated areas in Canada, and throughout the U.S. What they do know is that wherever they test for it thoroughly, they find it.
But the alarmists are still freaking out. What's new? The chances of dying in a vehicle wreck enroute to hunting is a million times + greater than contracting CWD, even from injection of prions right into the brain.
If you'd like the paper I can email it.
And old timers seeing deer/elk show symptoms similar to CWD is not anything close to proof that what they were seeing was CWD. There are so many diseases that can mimic CWD, especially at the end. And there is so much data/history of the spread of CWD to suggest that this thing is spreading out from the CSU area
To repeat an old cliché: "it is much safer to eat CWD than to drive to work tomorrow" And that is a FACT. But the chances it might cross to humans at some point is not zero.
I will hate the day we get the first positive on my ranch (about 80 miles from where it is currently). At this point, I think our only hope to help in the future it that evolution throws up a genetic resistance. I
The fact that not every cervid that is continually exposed contracts it seems to indicate that there may be some natural resistance. We can hope. But there's no question that population concentration = higher infection rates, and some researchers now believe plants may carry the prions up from contaminated soil, where the prions can be ingested. If researchers determine that harvested plants carrying prions are being transported, i.e... hay or other crops from high incidence areas, all hell will break loose.
Nor am I. I am not going to eat deer that appears sick, But there is only one way to know if a deer has CWD and that is through a brain exam. But one would be fairley stupid to eat any deer that is obviously sick. Again, I am sure going to shoot and try to kill an obviously sick deer and I shall immediately notify the right folks. This applies to in or out of season, any size or sex. If I were to get arrested, we would have a nice time in court.
