In South Central Pennsylvania last fall, there was an outbreak of wasting disease in the local herds, and I have to admit that the Fish & Wildlife rangers did a fantastic job of communicating and working with local hunters and processors to deal with it.
Could be the problem here is an inarticulate inconsequential in the Board of Health hierarchy who imagines hunters and rescue mission people can't understand.
Remember, all these BoH folks are trained professionals, and hunters are just hillbillies (even though there are no hills down there, and most of them rarely ever show up on Gator Man).(/s)
But hunters shouldn’t be overly concerned that they will serve their family dangerous meat.
“It’s not ever been shown to be contagious to humans,” LaCour said.
Of course, a bit of common sense is in order, he said.
“If a deer looks healthy and acts healthy, then it’s fine,” LaCour said. “If a deer is sick, if it’s got multiple ulcers or lesions, it’s best to chunk it.”
Deer management practices probably don’t need to b e altered, either. In fact, LaCour pointed out that, even though this is a severe outbreak, the LDWF is not considering any changes to hunting regs.
“Overall, it’s part of the normal cycle,” he said. “If you find three deer on your place, there are probably some more. If you have 4,000 acres, you might have 10 more. But that’s not a significant impact, so for the most part there’s no need to for any management considerations.”
Sounds like the health department is just trying to make a move to control more.
The article said they rec’d a call from someone getting a free meal complaining about being served deer meat. Did they know about deer being sick or just didn’t like deer meat?
There’s a hemorrhagic disease in deer in Michigan right now, too, but it’s said that eating an infected deer is not harmful to humans.
Maybe, but if LA is like most states, deer season has been over for months.
Unless some of the earliest cases are in he freezer, the meat is likely unaffected.