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Butchers want proof that game is CWD-free
Contamination ruins equipment, say area meat processors
By Gary Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain News
August 9, 2002
Colorado butchers would like hunters to verify their elk or deer are free of chronic wasting disease before bringing the animal in for processing.
The processors are concerned that if tainted meat gets into their expensive equipment, there is no way to disinfect it.
"There are real concerns on what processing CWD-positive animals will do to our facilities," Gary Baysinger, owner of Mountain Meat Packing and Mountain Game in Craig, said Thursday.
As president of the American Association of Meat Processors, which discussed CWD at its recent meeting in Reno, Nev., Baysinger said there are liability and health concerns about employees working with diseased animals.
"On our best days, we process 150 elk a day, which is 30 to 40 percent of our annual business," Baysinger said. "I have 30 people working at the plant, but put on an additional 20 to 30 during hunting season, which helps the local economy here."
Colorado Division of Wildlife Director Russ George said the kind of screening the meat processors want isn't going to happen.
"There's no way that out-of-state hunters are going to have the cold storage they need to wait for results of a CWD test to let them know the result on their animal," he said.
It isn't known yet how hunters will be notified if their animals are CWD-free, but there hasn't been any discussion of issuing certificates when an animal isn't infected, George said.
Baysinger is building Mountain Game, a separate facility, to handle meat from wild animals.
"A grinder costs $5,000 to $6,000, so you can't just be throwing them out," he said.
CWD attacks the brains of deer and elk. It is caused by an abnormal prion - a tiny infectious agent - which, once it contaminates a saw, knife or grinder, can only be killed by heating the equipment above 1,100 degrees, which would melt the metal, or in a sodium-hydroxide bath so caustic it would eat the metal.
"My plant sits dead in the middle of the (CWD)endemic area," said Kyle Miller, owner of Valley Packing in LaSalle and president of the Colorado Association of Meat Processors.
"My kids and I shot seven deer here last year," Miller said. "But we had to wait up to almost five months to get the results back on the CWD tests, and we are lucky enough to have freezer space at home to do it."
Miller requires any hunters in the endemic area in northeastern Colorado to bone out their game, put it in large bags in their freezers and get a certificate that it is CWD-free before he'll accept it.
Another serious problem for meat processors is disposal of deer and elk byproducts, even if they are CWD-free. Most landfills won't accept them.
At the Reno meeting,recommendations were adopted that instruct processors to:
• Wear latex gloves when working with deer or elk.
• Avoid severing the spinal column of deer or elk.
• Use separate saws and knives on the heads and bodies.
• Encourage clients to prepay so they're less likely to leave animals behind, but have a predetermined disposal site in case they do.
• Avoid cutting into the skull or head, and give it to the hunter for disposal.
• Use separate saws and knives for domestic animals.
• Build separate facilities to process game animals.
The association will ask its lawyer to draw up a disclaimer on the invoices stating processors are not responsible for any disease that comes from consuming processed game meat.
Contamination ruins equipment, say area meat processors
By Gary Gerhardt, Rocky Mountain News
August 9, 2002
Colorado butchers would like hunters to verify their elk or deer are free of chronic wasting disease before bringing the animal in for processing.
The processors are concerned that if tainted meat gets into their expensive equipment, there is no way to disinfect it.
"There are real concerns on what processing CWD-positive animals will do to our facilities," Gary Baysinger, owner of Mountain Meat Packing and Mountain Game in Craig, said Thursday.
As president of the American Association of Meat Processors, which discussed CWD at its recent meeting in Reno, Nev., Baysinger said there are liability and health concerns about employees working with diseased animals.
"On our best days, we process 150 elk a day, which is 30 to 40 percent of our annual business," Baysinger said. "I have 30 people working at the plant, but put on an additional 20 to 30 during hunting season, which helps the local economy here."
Colorado Division of Wildlife Director Russ George said the kind of screening the meat processors want isn't going to happen.
"There's no way that out-of-state hunters are going to have the cold storage they need to wait for results of a CWD test to let them know the result on their animal," he said.
It isn't known yet how hunters will be notified if their animals are CWD-free, but there hasn't been any discussion of issuing certificates when an animal isn't infected, George said.
Baysinger is building Mountain Game, a separate facility, to handle meat from wild animals.
"A grinder costs $5,000 to $6,000, so you can't just be throwing them out," he said.
CWD attacks the brains of deer and elk. It is caused by an abnormal prion - a tiny infectious agent - which, once it contaminates a saw, knife or grinder, can only be killed by heating the equipment above 1,100 degrees, which would melt the metal, or in a sodium-hydroxide bath so caustic it would eat the metal.
"My plant sits dead in the middle of the (CWD)endemic area," said Kyle Miller, owner of Valley Packing in LaSalle and president of the Colorado Association of Meat Processors.
"My kids and I shot seven deer here last year," Miller said. "But we had to wait up to almost five months to get the results back on the CWD tests, and we are lucky enough to have freezer space at home to do it."
Miller requires any hunters in the endemic area in northeastern Colorado to bone out their game, put it in large bags in their freezers and get a certificate that it is CWD-free before he'll accept it.
Another serious problem for meat processors is disposal of deer and elk byproducts, even if they are CWD-free. Most landfills won't accept them.
At the Reno meeting,recommendations were adopted that instruct processors to:
• Wear latex gloves when working with deer or elk.
• Avoid severing the spinal column of deer or elk.
• Use separate saws and knives on the heads and bodies.
• Encourage clients to prepay so they're less likely to leave animals behind, but have a predetermined disposal site in case they do.
• Avoid cutting into the skull or head, and give it to the hunter for disposal.
• Use separate saws and knives for domestic animals.
• Build separate facilities to process game animals.
The association will ask its lawyer to draw up a disclaimer on the invoices stating processors are not responsible for any disease that comes from consuming processed game meat.
