Ask Fish and Game

Q. If the deer or elk I shot in Wyoming this past season checked positive for chronic wasting disease, can I get sick from eating the meat now stored in my freezer? A. No evidence exists that anyone has yet. But public health officials caution hunters to avoid handling brains, spinal columns and lymph nodes when field dressing deer and elk taken in areas where chronic wasting disease is found. They are urged to destroy the meat from any deer or elk that test positive for chronic wasting disease. There is no known cure for the fatal brain disease that affects elk and deer and is related to mad cow disease in domestic cattle and scrapie in domestic sheep. The disease has been found in 11 states and two Canadian provinces - but not in Idaho. Scientists, including the Centers for Disease Control, don't know how it is transmitted, and so far they have found no evidence that the disease has or can be spread to humans, either through contact with infected animal or by eating meat of infected animals.