Handling Instructions
- Deer or elk that are observed to be ill, or found dead, should not be handled and should not be eaten.
- Wear rubber or latex gloves when handling or processing carcasses.
- Avoid handling or cutting through the skull or spinal cord. Use separate dedicated knives, saws and cutting boards to butcher deer, particularly if you cut through the spinal cord or skull (such as when removing antlers). Do not use regular kitchen utensils. Wash thoroughly with soap and water any knives, butchering tools, work surfaces, hands and any other part of the body that has been exposed to animal tissues, blood, urine, or feces. Equipment should then be rinsed with boiling water or sanitized with a chemical sanitizer.
- As an additional precaution against CWD, soak cleaned knives and tools for one hour in a fresh solution of household chlorine bleach (unscented) mixed with an equal amount of water, air dry, then rinse with clean water. Wipe down cleaned counters and other surfaces with 50 percent bleach solution and allow them to air dry.
- Should you decide to take the skull cap (e.g., with antlers), make sure to thoroughly clean the skull cap, utensils and work surfaces with bleach solution as described above.
- Avoid handling brain or spinal tissues/fluids, saliva and mouth parts and wash hands thoroughly with soap and water afterward if such handling occurred. If these tissues or fluids get into a fresh open break in a person's skin or the eyes, mouth, or nose, contact the local health department to evaluate possible rabies exposure and need for testing the animal for rabies.
- Request if possible that individual animals are processed individually, without meat from other animals being added together.
- The brain, spinal cord and other nervous tissue, spleen, pancreas, eyes, tonsils, and lymph nodes of game may have CWD prions, and additional organs (liver, kidney, heart and salivary glands) may pose a risk of infection for a number of diseases. Normal field dressing will eliminate most of these organs and tissues. Hunters should have deer boned out and have as much fat, connective tissue and lymph nodes removed as possible.
- Although no current evidence links CWD to human health, out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that people not consume, distribute, or donate for human consumption a known or suspect CWD-positive animal.
- For more information about handling, processing, or eating meat from deer or elk in other states, contact those state agriculture, wildlife, and health agencies.
