Guidelines sought for deer processing

MILWAUKEE, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Wisconsin doctors Wednesday urged deer processors to adopt guidelines similar to those imposed by Great Britain to handle mad cow disease to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease.

Though there is no clear evidence chronic wasting disease can be passed from deer and elk to humans, the doctors said adopting such guidelines is the prudent thing to do.

Chronic wasting disease, like mad cow -- known to biologists as bovine spongiform encephalopathy -- and scrapie in sheep, is a neurological disease. It is thought caused by mutant proteins known as prions that literally create holes in the brain. Consuming meat from diseased cows could be linked to a variant of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, a human brain disease similar to mad cow. It is unclear how chronic wasting disease is spread but researchers have noted the prions resist destruction.

"I don't think that it is unreasonable, in a state that regulates hairdressers and virtually all aspects of the food industry, to regulate deer processing," G. Richard Olds, an infectious disease expert at the Medical College of Wisconsin, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

At present, meat processors are allowed to butcher both venison and other meat at the same facilities. Olds expressed concern whether those facilities can be cleaned adequately to prevent prions from contaminating the butchering areas.

Among the recommendations is that no brains, spinal cord, eyes or lymphatic tissue be used in deer sausage. British reforms also required meat processors to use separate tools for removing the head and spinal cord of a cow from those used to dress the carcass.

Chronic wasting disease was first discovered in Wisconsin last fall in three deer shot near Mount Horeb. Since then, 28 others have tested positive in addition to a captive deer near Portage. Along with Wisconsin, the disease has been confirmed in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Minnesota.

Deer herds in most states are at an all-time high and conservation officials worry the populations could go out of control if hunters decide against participating this year, leading to more car accidents, crop damage and habitat destruction. Bow hunting season opened Tuesday in Michigan and will open Saturday in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In North Dakota, some hunters have been reported saying they do not plan to go deer hunting when the gun season opens Nov. 8 because of the threat chronic wasting disease poses, even though no infected animals have been found in the state.

A recent Mason-Dixon poll of 1,100 people conducted for Minnesota Public Radio indicates nearly a quarter of those who said they have hunted deer in the state at least once in the past three years plan to stay home this year. Only 27 percent of those who plan to hunt said they will have their kill tested for chronic wasting disease.

The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association said hunters are confused over whether it is safe to hunt.

"People are changing their minds on an almost day-to-day basis as far as what I hear right now," Mark Johnson, executive director of the group, told Minnesota Public Radio.