Deer meat mystery: 10 men 'violently' ill after wild venison meal

[Green Squall]

https://www.wisn.com/article/dear-meat-mystery-10-men-violently-ill-after-wild-venison-meal/13061864

Does anyone have any theories on what made these people sick? I know there's more than a few hunters here, so I'd like to hear your thoughts. Symptoms didn't appear for 5 days and as mentioned in the article, there were no gastrointestinal problems, so it wasn't food poisoning. Hmm

 

[yasker]

The evidence is almost always gone by the time people have symptoms. It's very difficult to solve these cases. The venison may only be a coincidence. It could have been some other food served with the meal. Or not even the food. One of the guys could have passed something to the group.

 

[St. Phatty]

Sounds like they were poisoned.

I would guess the deer ate something that then poisoned the 10 men.

 

[Stoner4Life]

true yasker, the evidence is usually gone; but here we have a wild harvested & locally butchered deer, I'd bet that somewhere a steak or tenderloin strap could still be found in someone's chest freezer.......

 

[growingcrazy]

Could be as simple as that animal had a typical virus at the time of death...

Most deer are eating GMO corn nowadays... gave it up years ago.

 

[moose eater]

Could've been a chemical or cleanser in the butchering area that came in contact with the meat.

Could've been something in the place where they ate the meat, unrelated to the meat.

Or... aliens. The Extra-terrestrial type, that is... <Yes, that was sarcasm....>

 

[Leaf Eater]

Hey moose eater with a name like that you must hunt and be good at it
My thoughts were it may have been gutted wrong and nobody knew, is that possible?

 

[Green Squall]

Hey moose eater with a name like that you must hunt and be good at it
My thoughts were it may have been gutted wrong and nobody knew, is that possible?

Doubt it since there were no gastrointestinal issues and symptoms didn't appear to days later. Sounds viral to me. Hopefully its an isolated incident.

 

[moose eater]

Hey moose eater with a name like that you must hunt and be good at it
My thoughts were it may have been gutted wrong and nobody knew, is that possible?

Moose are members of the deer family, and they are ruminants, like cattle, meaning they have multi-chambered stomachs.

When you cut into a digestive tract in a ruminant, and the 'cud' (with moose, willow leaves, grasses, twigs, etc.) escapes, it can stink heavily (sometimes what draws bear to a kill site), and minimally taint the meat a bit.

When the bile sack is accidentally sliced (the darker greenish-black sack of fluid attached to the liver), that can ruin the meat it touches, as far as taste is concerned.

In black bear, Koreans and other folks of Asian descent commonly use the air-dried gall bladder (bile sack) as a cure-all remedy, and while somewhat toxic (and valuable on the black market) from what I know, ingested in smaller quantities, I don't think it has any serious ill effects. Many 'medicines' and vices are toxins by definition.

If there were some sort of parasite, -that- might explain a 5-day delay in symptoms, but I can't think of any right now that would/could cause violent illness. Properly cooked meat containing parasites typically amounts to extra protein. (meat cooked to an internal temp of 146 f. or hotter)

I know the equivalent of mad cow disease (a protein based issue that, as I understand it, -doesn't- die at high heat) is/can be found in deer in the Mid-West, though it's my understanding the on-set for that is slower, and I don't think it involves violent illness either. (That I know of, we don't have that up here in our coastal deer, the Sitka Blacktail deer, that are in Prince William Sound, Kodiak Island, and Southeast Alaska).

Even with toxins, the likelihood of it taking 5 days to express itself (what ever 'it' is) would be odd.

So, based on what I 'know,' it sounds like a mystery to me.

What ever it is, -I- don't want it..

 

[troutman]

Maybe don't eat roadkill deer?

 

[moose eater]

If antibiotics helped, and the 'help' was not (psycho-somatic/placebo effect) (unlikely if all 10 or 11 persons felt relief from the administering of the drug(s) ), then it seems to point to the issue being bacterial.

'Nature' is evolving continuously. It could be some bacterial presence in the water taken in by the deer, or eaten by the deer, or in the butchering area, or in the area the meal was consumed in, area the meal was cooked in.. What ever. But the fact that antibiotics 'helped,' tells me the issue is bacterial.

Antibiotics, that I know of, don't aid in treating neurotoxins of any origin I'm familiar with, nor do they effectively treat viral issues.

So they're likely looking for some strange or newly-found/recently morphed bacteria with a 5-day gestation period.

And like Lyme tick's disease, and the deer-based equivalent of mad cow disease, I hope they either eradicate it quickly, or at least keep it local to where ever it resides now.

As it is, we're seeing ticks and fleas in Alaska that we never used to see, presumably as a by-product of warmer weather and the 'jet age.' Keep all that chit away!! ;^>)

 

[Ncali]

Mad cow is a prion disorder that destroys neurological tissues in the host. The prion disorder is transmitted by ingesting affected tissues, thats pretty unlikely for deer... cows were fed proteins that were tainted. Id guess it was probably viral or food prep. I'd go with food prep as my guess for such an isolated instance. Much more likely unless we hear of more cases

 

[Dog Star]

If antibiotics helped them then it was not viral but bacteriologic...

Antibiotics dont kill viruses or affect them in any way..

 

[moose eater]

Mad cow is a prion disorder that destroys neurological tissues in the host. The prion disorder is transmitted by ingesting affected tissues, thats pretty unlikely for deer... cows were fed proteins that were tainted. Id guess it was probably viral or food prep. I'd go with food prep as my guess for such an isolated instance. Much more likely unless we hear of more cases

Many hunters, even those not in the mid-west, were aware of this issue when it first began occurring. The best description was of a mad-cow-like disease, also known as 'chronic wasting disease,' but like I said earlier, I don't think this case has anything to do with that disease.

When cases of chronic wasting disease were on the increase, a number of years ago, hunters I knew in the mid-west (people I'd known from my childhood and adolescent years there) told me they possessed posted phone numbers/contact info, that if hunters saw deer behaving erratically, they were to contact the number, and the area was shut down for hunting.

Perhaps a different on-set or cause, but very similar symptoms as those of mad cow.

https://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2012/11/29/chronic-wasting-disease-a-new-threat-to-pennsylvania-deer-no-gun-required/

https://www.news-journal.com/news/2016/jul/02/fatal-mad-cow-like-disease-in-whitetail-deer-doubl/

https://www.hcn.org/issues/126/4024

https://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2004/02/oh_deer.html

https://www.mad-cow.org/99feb_cwd_special.html

 

[Water-]

It's also possible that it was a virus that had completed showing symptom around the end of antibiotic course. The ending of symptoms coinciding with the end of antibiotic use could just be a coincidence as well. Symptoms kinda remind me off the tick fever I got in Africa .

 

[Stoner4Life]

a friend up here used to make a wicked fish head soup, but nobody ever got sick from it, somewhat challenging to look @ in your bowl, but delicious nonetheless.......

 

[Leaf Eater]

a friend up here used to make a wicked fish head soup, but nobody ever got sick from it, somewhat challenging to look @ in your bowl, but delicious nonetheless.......

Reminds me of a funny song
[YOUTUBEIF]JKDtUzRIG6I[/YOUTUBEIF]

 

[stoned-trout]

Never once got sick from venison i killed and butchered...yeehaw.....fish heads fish heads rolly Polly fish heads....Dr demento show

 

[Green Squall]

Never once got sick from venison i killed and butchered...yeehaw.....fish heads fish heads rolly Polly fish heads....Dr demento show

Ya this was definitely an isolated incident thats why I was curious.

Stoner4life- There's a restaurant in Japan that's known for their roasted bluefin tuna heads. Definitely on my bucket list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rClVzqF-jmw

 

[shithawk420]

You know how expensive that is?way too rich for my blood.I really wanna try shark fin soup but that's even more expensive.