In a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment.
Fr. CWD is a major reason I avoid venison. It hasn’t made the jump yet, but damn if I’m going to be the 1st.
Pretty sure they have kits you can use to send for testing for it if you hunt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease
Since 2014, however, the CFIA has allowed animals from CWD-infected farms to enter the food chain because there is “no national requirement to have animals tested for the disease”. From one CWD-infected herd in Alberta, 131 elk were sold for human consumption.[19]
Hmm.
Hunters have been diagnosed with the human equivalent shortly after eating infected venison. There’s no proven causal link, but it seems like quite a coincidence.
