Health and

Wild Game Hunting and Food Safety

Learn how to reduce your risk of illness from wild game

Wild Game Hunting Safety

Every year millions of people across the United States practice the sport of wild game hunting. Wild game includes deer and other hooved animals, bear, wild hogs, birds, and small mammals such as raccoon and squirrel. Millions more eat wild game in the form of burgers, steaks, stews, and jerkies, among other preparations.

Diseases that spread from animals to humans are called 'zoonotic diseases'. There are many zoonotic diseases people can get from wild game. Most of these diseases make people sick when they eat undercooked meat, but some can make people sick from touching blood, muscle, brain tissue, and organs of a wild game animal.

Anyone involved with the hunting, preparation or eating of wild game should be aware of diseases that can be acquired from these animals and their meat. Become familiar with food safety procedures that can help prevent infection at all stages of preparation, from field dressing to cooking and storage.

Field Dressing and Butchering

Types of disease

Many of the diseases wild game animals can spread to humans are serious. It is very important to remember that not all infected animals look sick. You may feel sick soon after coming in contact with an infected animal or you could start to feel sick months later, depending upon on the type of disease.

You can get infected when field dressing or butchering

You may be at risk of becoming infected with a disease when field dressing or butchering an infected animal or bird. This is especially true when there is no soap and water available with which to clean up. You can get infected if blood, muscle, organs, or brain tissue of a wild animal comes in contact with your:

• eyes,
• nose,
• mouth, or
• a skin cut

Not only can you get sick from having direct contact with an infected animal's fluids or organs, but tools can also spread germs if not cleaned well. There are simple things you can do to protect yourself and your family from getting sick.

Prevention: Safe Field Dressing and Butchering

• Avoid all contact with visibly ill animals or those found dead.
• Use clean, sharp knives for field dressing and butchering.
• Wear eye protection and rubber or latex gloves (disposable or reusable) when handling carcasses.
• Avoid direct contact (bare skin) with fluid or organs from the wild game.
• Burn disposable gloves or place in a bag and throw away in the trash. Burn or bury inedible parts of the carcass after butchering.
• Wash hands as soon as possible with soap and warm water for 20 seconds or more and dry hands with a clean cloth.
• Clean all tools and reusable gloves used in field dressing and butchering with a disinfectant—such as dilute bleach (Read the safety instructions on the label).

Food Prep, Cooking and Food Storage

Consumers can greatly reduce their risk of food borne illness from wild game by following these four easy steps:

• CLEAN: Wash hands and surfaces often
• SEPARATE: Don't cross-contaminate!
• COOK: Cook to proper temperature
• CHILL: Refrigerate promptly

For more information on these steps, click on the step name or visit the Keeping Food Safe section of the new FoodSafety.gov site.

If you think you may have gotten sick from wild game hunting, contact your doctor.

http://medicalinformation-dobi.blogspot.com/search/label/Health%20and