Tulsa hunter's CWD-tainted meat goes up in smoke

Wildlife officials ask hunters to contact them about Chronic Wasting Disease parts/meat

Tracking a mule deer can be tricky but who knew it could be so hard to find one after the deer is already dead, quartered, packed, frozen and transported.

I’m still not exactly sure where Tulsa hunter Nick Doctor’s venison ended up, but the meat from the hunter’s Wyoming muley—which tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease—wasn’t too great a threat to begin with and certainly is no longer a problem for Oklahoma’s wildlife.

Nick Doctor of Tulsa and his 4X4 Wyoming mule deer.

“I wasn’t exactly sure what the next step was… What was the protocol?”

A little confusion about disposal of wild game with CWD is to be expected in Oklahoma, where the disease has not yet hit free-ranging cervids and cases in domestic deer and elk operations have been few.

The state’s CWD-free status is remarkable considering the disease is documented in free-ranging deer in all surrounding states. But with nearly 12,000 animals tested since 1999 it remains undocumented, according to Dallas Barber, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation big game biologist.

The Wildlife Department put new rules in place this year as part of its effort to maintain that CWD-free status. The rules state that no one may “import, transport or possess any cervid carcass or part of a cervid carcass from outside the boundaries of Oklahoma.” The only exceptions are antlers or antlers attached to a clean skull plate or skull with all tissue removed; animal quarters containing no spinal materials or meat with all parts of the spinal column removed; cleaned teeth; finished taxidermy products; and hides or tanned products.

But what if a hunter comes home with the meat taken from an infected deer; meat the Centers for Disease Control recommends people not consume?

Doctor killed a great 4-by-4 buck in early October while hunting with his father on some of his old home stomping grounds in eastern Wyoming. The buck, which appeared healthy, was taken after several days of hard hunting, he said.

The hunters knew CWD was endemic in the area so they dressed the deer in the field, left the spine there and took the head to a Wyoming Game & Fish Department check station where techs pulled the lymph nodes for testing.

Doctor and his father cut off the skullcap and had it cleaned, boiled and bleached. They processed the meat, and he brought it home in his chest freezer as he waited for the CWD test results.

But when Wyoming officials notified him the deer had CWD he didn’t have guidelines for what to do next.

“I wasn’t exactly sure what the next step was,” Doctor said. “What was the protocol? I know you shouldn’t just put it in the landfill, but in Tulsa our residential trash goes to an incinerator, so was that OK?”

Barber said that Doctor took the best step by calling a local game warden. The Wildlife Department is interested in any instances of CWD and the department will pick up any CWD-positive meat and see that it is disposed of properly, he said.

Carlos Gomez, game warden for Tulsa County, took the venison to the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. The lab used to have a high-temperature incinerator and an alkaline digester to dispose of prion-contaminated animal parts.

This is where the trail of this particular deer went cold for me.

According to OSU College of Veterinary Medicine spokeswoman Derinda Blakeney, the lab no longer has functioning equipment and contracts other facilities for incineration. She said she did not know who was contracted to do the incineration of Doctor’s venison but that the lab’s policy is not to release specifics about samples to anyone other than the person who orders the service.

Barber said it was news to him that the deer meat went elsewhere, but he reiterated that any hunters who have CWD-positive meat or anything that might be considered “high-risk parts” should contact the Wildlife Department.

What makes disposal of CWD-infected materials important is that it is a neurological disease transmitted through the shedding of prions (CWD proteins) that affect the animal’s brains. It is always fatal, no treatment or vaccine exists, and experts believe the prions can remain in the environment and infect other animals for years.

In other words, it’s not something you want to toss out in the pasture for the coyotes and buzzards, or to put in a dumpster or trash can where raccoons or stray dogs can get to it.

The last instance of CWD infection in Oklahoma was at a Lincoln County elk farm where one elk died and two others were found to have the disease after Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry officials killed the entire herd and closed down the operation.

State veterinarian Rod Hall said officials used extreme care in handling the CWD-positive elk. After staff collected samples from the elk on-site the carcasses were placed in what amounted to “really heavy-duty” body bags and hauled in a truck with a rubber liner. The agency contracted with a facility with an approved lined landfill for burial, he said.

Staff monitored the bags during the transport for any possible leakage and it was arranged to have the elk delivered late in the day so they would be buried shortly thereafter, he said.

Recommended disposal of CWD-infected parts includes deep burial in an approved lined landfill, high-temperature commercial incineration (the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources uses a unit that reaches 2,800 degrees), or disposal in a medical or research lab waste system like an alkaline digester, he said.

Prions do not reach the surface after deep burial and the other methods destroy the prions, he said.

Doctor said the experience forces a change in how a hunter looks at their responsibilities as a hunter. Being in the field helps eliminate infected animals and helps biologists with information that might assist in a path forward in understanding the disease.

“It’s not going to dissuade me from hunting, but there is a heartbreaking thing about it for someone who was raised with the idea if you’re hunting and take an animal you have a responsibility to use that meat and be responsible about it,” he said.