By Patrick Durkin

July 3, 2008

Count my family among those unworried about getting lead poisoning from deer we’ve shot and processed.

After all, history suggests lead poisoning from venison isn’t a problem, at least not for people. Whether it’s Myles Standish, Daniel Boone, Teddy Roosevelt or Brett Favre, millions of people have shot deer with lead projectiles. Whether we used musket-balls, shotgun slugs or rifle bullets, we ate the venison and lived to tell the tale.

In contrast, we’re continually warned about beef, poultry, tomatoes or spinach after bacteria kill people or put them on the brink. And who hasn’t heard about mercury in tuna or PCBs in salmon?

Therefore, even with recent findings of lead particles in some food-pantry venison, most of us think it remains the healthy red meat. It’s lean, protein rich and 100 percent free range.

Besides, Wisconsinites have some practice with venison scares. We’re only six years removed from finding chronic wasting disease in our deer. Since, we’ve mostly overcome irrational fears that venison would turn every brain into sponge cake.

Maybe that’s why Wisconsin officials took a measured response after North Dakota physician William Cornatzer reported in March that he found lead in 60 percent of the ground venison tested in that state’s food pantries. North Dakota responded by telling food pantries to dump their venison, 5,000 pounds of it, meant for needy families. Minnesota followed by dumping 12,000 pounds.

Meanwhile, Iowa and Wisconsin put their food-pantry programs on hold pending tests. Iowa resumed its programs after finding no lead in eight randomly selected packages of ground venison, and two packages with insignificant amounts of lead.

Wisconsin’s tests found lead in 4 percent of the 200 venison packages it tested, most of which was ground meat. It also tested samples of venison processed by individual hunters and commercial operations. Although the results are being analyzed, it appears venison processed individually is least likely to contain lead particles.

Either way, Wisconsin instructed food pantries not to distribute their venison before having it checked, and encourages them to contact veterinarians for X-raying. The state also is preparing guidelines to help hunters, commercial processors and food pantries ensure future venison is as lead-free as possible. With a little more planning, the venison supply to food pantries shouldn’t be interrupted.

In other words, Wisconsin officials are confident we have the skills and knowledge to keep the lead out of venison. Hunters will be encouraged to use copper or “bonded” bullets, which mushroom after impact but remain almost fully intact. Traditional copper-jacketed lead bullets shed more lead in the wound channel.

Hunters also should avoid shots at running deer and aim for the rib cage, not the spinal column or large bones. Some lighter bullet designs nearly disintegrate against heavy bone.

Everyone also should be more careful while processing venison. Although we discard bloodshot meat around the wound and take special care with roasts, tenderloins and back-straps, we’re usually less fussy about “scrap” meat destined for grinding or sausage-making.

If you’re still fretting, contrast those self-controls with fish-eating precautions. Unlike bloodshot venison, we can’t see evidence of PCBs, mercury and other contaminants in fish. We can remove the skin, stomach meat and blood-line to shed some bad stuff, but not mercury, which collects throughout the body.

Therefore, we must trust the state to determine how much fish we can safely consume based on its size, species and home water, as well as our sex and age. Our responsibility is to read enough information to ensure the health benefits of fish outweigh its possible detriments to us and our children.

Whether it’s fish or venison, it’s also up to us to keep risks in perspective. Some folks will shun both, then hop on a motorcycle or snowmobile, then smoke cigarettes and eat pork rinds at each rest stop.

So be it.

The state is obligated only to point out risks we can’t easily detect. It’s purposely powerless to prevent risks we’re determined to ignore.

Patrick Durkin is a freelance writer who covers outdoors for the Press-Gazette. E-mail him at patrickdurkin@charter.net

Officials from seven Midwest states were in Bloomington to discuss what has become a major wildlife and health issue.

By Doug Smith, Star Tribune

Last update: June 4, 2008 - 11:38 PM

Minnesota officials have tested 1,239 samples of venison donated to food shelves last fall and found that 273, or 22 percent, had evidence of lead bullet fragments.

That percentage is similar what was announced in April after about 300 samples had been examined with X-ray equipment.

But the extent of the issue continues to surprise and perplex officials.

Because all of the donated venison was processed commercially, some have suggested that careless processors might be at least partially to blame.

But the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources collected and tested 123 samples from DNR employees who processed their own deer themselves. They found about 18 percent had some lead contamination.

“I was shocked,” said Lou Cornicelli, DNR big-game program manager and a deer hunter whose own venison had some lead contamination. “I’m pretty careful how I trim around wound channels.”

The latest information came as 40 wildlife, health and agriculture officials from seven Midwest states gathered Wednesday in Bloomington to discuss how to respond to what has become a major wildlife and health issue.

“This isn’t a state issue, it’s a national issue,” DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten said. “It’s not going away.”

Officials hope the Midwest states can provide similar messages to hunters regarding lead and venison to avoid confusion. “We need to all be on the same page,” Holsten said.

Officials are trying to develop guidelines for hunters and deer processors before fall that might reduce the amount of lead fragments in venison.

Representatives came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Michigan and Missouri. Four of the states have found lead in donated venison.

Because of the discovery, the future of venison-donation programs in Minnesota and several other states is uncertain.

Natural resource agencies desperately want to retain the venison-donation programs because they encourage hunters to reduce overpopulations of deer while providing food shelves with high-protein meat to distribute.

“It’s a very important deer management tool,” said Dennis Simon, DNR wildlife management section chief.

Minnesota’s deer hunters and food shelf consumers should know by the end of the month whether the state venison-donation program, which was launched just last fall, will continue.

Officials also discussed issuing venison consumption guidelines for food shelf users. Because even low lead levels can be harmful to young children and pregnant women, they could recommend that they not consume donated venison.

Few studies have been done on the extent of lead contamination in venison and the possible effect on consumers.

Venison samples still are being examined in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

In North Dakota, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing lead levels in the blood of 738 residents, including venison eaters.

“I think the whole nation is waiting to see the results,” said Sandi Washek of the North Dakota Department of Health.

dsmith@startribune.com • 612-673-7667

Lead study blood samples go to CDC

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press writer
with staff reports

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 2:08 AM MDT

BISMARCK, N.D. — State and federal health officials have finished collecting blood samples from more than 700 North Dakotans who ate wild game shot with lead bullets.

North Dakota health officials and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are studying whether there are health risks for people who eat the meat, said Dr. Stephen Pickard, an epidemiologist with the state Health Department.

Blood samples were collected May 16 to May 30, from 738 people in North Dakota’s six largest cities, Pickard said. The samples were taken from children as young as 2 to adults, Pickard said. Most were collected from adults who had eaten venison killed with high-velocity ammo, though some samples were taken from people who had eaten pheasants and waterfowl shot with either lead or non-lead pellets, he said.

The samples have been sent to CDC’s laboratory in Atlanta, Pickard said. The study includes only North Dakota residents, he said.

“We hope to find nothing, of course,” Pickard said. “It will tell us if there is a substantial blood-lead level increase.”

Results are expected before this year’s fall hunting season, Pickard said.

“No study is definitive,” he said. “We hope to have a set of guidelines and recommendations that we can give to hunting community of what the risk is, and what the hunting community can do to minimize that risk.”

Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples.

The Peregrine Fund, a Boise, Idaho-based conservation group that works to protect birds of prey, conducted a separate study in concert with scientists from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, in which researchers examined professionally processed meat from hunter-killed deer in Wyoming.

Eighty percent of the deer killed by high-velocity lead-based ammunition in that study produced at least some meat with metal fragments or metal “dust” in it, and 92 percent of the metal found was lead, according to the leaders of the project.

North Dakota and Minnesota officials, worried about lead bullet fragments, told food bank operators in March to discard deer meat donated by hunters. Some groups that donate venison to the needy called the actions premature and unsupported by science.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will meet Wednesday to discuss lead fragments in venison. Health officials, wildlife experts and hunting representatives from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa

Minn. hosts meeting on lead fragments in venison

Associated Press

Last update: June 1, 2008 - 11:00 AM

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Experts on wildlife, public health and food safety from five states including Wisconsin are meeting in Minnesota this week to talk about lead fragments in deer shot by hunters.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is hosting Wednesday’s meeting.

DNR wildlife section chief Dennis Simon says the meeting kicks off a regional effort to come up with recommendations on the issue. Each state will evaluate its venison-donation program, which allows hunters to give meat to food shelves.

Some venison was recalled from food shelves in Minnesota and North Dakota after lead fragments were found in the meat. Officials say they didn’t know the health risks associated with consumption of lead particles from ammunition. No illnesses have been reported.

The meeting will also include hunting representatives and officials from North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2008/04/13/news/state/153251.txt 

Venison donor programs skeptical about fears of lead fragments 

Apr 13, 2008 - 04:05:08 CDT

By DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press Writer

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - Organizations that donate nearly a million pounds of venison to food banks annually say growing concerns about lead bullet fragments in the meat are premature.

Minnesota followed suit last week, directing food banks and soup kitchens to destroy any venison after tests revealed varying levels of lead fragments in 76 of 299 samples.

Iowa briefly banned venison distribution in late March but lifted the order April 1 after testing 10 samples and finding that eight had no detectable lead and two had less than 1 part per million, which the agency said presented no recognized risk for lead exposure.

Ingesting lead can cause significant health problems for young children and pregnant women.

Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry, based in Williamsport, Md., oversees donations of more than 282,000 pounds of venison in 27 states annually. Josh Wilson, national operations director, said North Dakota may have acted too quickly in asking food banks to discard the meat.

“I don’t think we’ve seen enough to be alarmed or concerned at this point,” he said. “If anything, a little more study is needed.”

Safari Club International, which donated 317,000 pounds of venison to the needy last year through its Sportsmen Against Hunger program, was similarly skeptical.

“This is disheartening, and we certainly don’t think this program should come to an end on the unscientific assessment that has occurred here,” Doug Burdin, a lawyer for the Tucson, Ariz.-based group, told The Associated Press in North Dakota.

Hunters for the Hungry, based in Big Island, Va., distributed more than 363,000 pounds of venison to Virginia food banks last year, director Laura Newell-Furniss said. She, too, said more study is needed before venison donations are banned.

“People have been eating venison for centuries from deer that were killed with lead bullets and we haven’t been aware of any problems with that,” she said.

Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck, N.D., physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries.

“There is lead in there, and the only acceptable level of lead is zero,” Cornatzer said Friday. “The scariest thing is that the lead particles are so small you can’t feel them when you chew them.

“This should not be the end to these programs in any way - poor people are getting good protein from this,” Cornatzer said. “This is not just a food pantry problem - it’s a problem for everyone and we, as hunters, need to change the way we harvest our deer.”

Jody Menikheim, who oversees meat-processor inspections for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said the agency would discuss with state Agriculture Department veterinarians the possibility of venison lead testing next fall when the meat donations are made.

The statewide Maryland Food Bank receives 500 pounds of donated venison annually and doesn’t want to lose it, spokeswoman Shanna Yetman said.

“We’re always really excited to get this type of donation because there’s a lot of protein in deer meat. It’s very nutritious. It’s a good product,” she said.

Chicago-based America’s Second Harvest alerted all of its more than 200 food banks around the country to the North Dakota directive, spokesman Ross Fraser said. The organization relayed the state’s announcement but didn’t advise them to take any action.

The group’s guidelines for wild game donations state that, if handled properly, wild game can be an important food source. The guidelines don’t mention lead contamination.

(Associated Press Writer James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this story.)

Donated Venison Cleared for Distribution to Needy
Posted: April 1, 2008

DES MOINES — Food pantries in Iowa have been given approval to resume serving deer venison to the needy after sampling of the ground meat for lead indicated only trace amounts.

A total of 10 samples of ground venison from a food pantry were tested by the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory over the weekend. All 10 samples had less than 1 part per million of lead, eight had no detectable amounts and two had only trace amounts.

Distribution of venison donated to the food pantries by hunters was temporarily halted last week until the ground meat could be sampled for lead. More than 25,000 deer have been donated to hunger programs through the Department of Natural Resources (DNR)-administered HUSH (Help Us Stop Hunger) program in the last five years representing more than 4 million meal servings. HUSH is a cooperative effort among deer hunters, the Food Bank of Iowa, meat lockers and the Iowa DNR. The two main goals of HUSH include reducing the deer population while providing high-quality red meat to the needy in Iowa.

“Based on the samples that were analyzed and the extensive data currently available through blood testing of Iowans by our department, no additional tests of the venison are necessary,” said Ken Sharp, director of the environmental health division of the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH).

“When we look at the results of this testing and the blood data that has been collected over the years, the venison provided through the HUSH program presents no recognized risk for lead exposure,” Sharp added.

Lead poisoning can cause significant health problems for young children and pregnant women. Lead-based paint is the leading cause of lead exposure for children. Since 1992, more than 500,000 Iowa children and more than 25,000 Iowa adults have been tested for lead poisoning. None of the cases of lead poisoning identified from this testing resulted from ingestion of venison, according to the IDPH.

Based on these results and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established guidelines for daily lead intake, the IDPH states that people can safely consume the following amount of ground venison:

• Children under the age of 6 years: 2 four-ounce servings per week
• Pregnant women: 1 four-ounce serving per day
• All other adults: 3 four-ounce servings per day

If parents are concerned about their children’s exposure to lead in venison, they should ask their physician to test their children for lead poisoning, according to the IDPH.

Hunters with ground venison in their own freezers should consider the daily intake recommendations made by the IDPH based on the FDA established guidelines. How the meat was processed and what care was taken to clean the animal when it was harvested should be considered on other cuts of venison to determine the likelihood of lead being present.

Testing of the HUSH venison was prompted when North Dakota issued a press release last Wednesday urging food pantries across that state to not distribute or use donated ground venison through its hunter donation program after 53 of 95 packages detected metals through x-ray testing.

“This is a question we have never encountered before. We wanted to do the sampling so that we would have confidence that the venison is safe,” said Ross Harrison, coordinator of the HUSH program for DNR.

Harrison said he is pleased that distribution of the venison can now continue.

“One of Iowa’s most valuable natural resources is its deer herd. The HUSH program has been a perfect match of being able to utilize this resource in a positive way to help some of our most needy citizens,” said Harrison.

“This testing confirms what we have believed all along that donated venison can be a valuable contribution to the health of needy Iowans,” Harrison said.

For more information, contact Kevin Baskins at 515-249-2814.

 NSSF Statement on Discarding Venison in North Dakota and Minnesota

For more than a century, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely consumed game harvested using traditional hunting ammunition. There is absolutely no peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support the unfortunate and unnecessary overreaction by North Dakota and Minnesota health officials, based on an unpublished study by a local dermatologist, to have food pantries discard perfectly good meat because it was taken with traditional ammunition. Furthermore, we question whether a dermatologist is even qualified to render these opinions, particularly in light of the absence of any scientific findings published by qualified experts. No systematic scientific or epidemiological evidence exists in the scientific literature to support conclusion that there is a human health exposure risk. The dermatologist study does not scientifically establish the existence of a health risk. For example, there is no blood test to show whether anyone who consumed venison acquired at a food panty has elevated lead levels, let alone that the venison was the source. The decision to take nourishing, high-protein food out of the mouths of the needy was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the chemistry of elemental lead and the human digestive system. The state is needlessly creating a scare upon hunters that has no basis in science. We strongly urge North Dakota and Minnesota health officials to reconsider their decision and for other states to base their public policy decision on sound science.

Warnings of lead in venison irk hunters

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 29, 5:32 AM ET

BISMARCK, N.D. - Thousands of pounds of venison donated to food pantries this year has become a contentious gift in three states.

Officials in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa warn that the meat could be contaminated by lead from bullets. Hunting groups are calling it an overreaction.

“It’s alarmist and not supported by any science,” said Lawrence Keane, a vice president and lawyer for the Newton, Conn.-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. “High quality protein is now taken out of the mouths of needy, hungry people.”

North Dakota health officials on Wednesday told food pantries in the state to throw out donated venison, saying it may have lead fragments. Officials in Minnesota and Iowa followed with similar alerts, asking that venison in those states not be distributed.

Gov. John Hoeven said the alerts were issued as a precaution. He said the state has a “tremendous working relationship” with hunters, and the questions raised about venison are new.

Safari Club International’s Sportsmen Against Hunger program donated 317,000 pounds of venison last year to the needy, said Doug Burdin, a lawyer for the Tucson, Ariz.-based group. The meat donated by hunters was enough for more than 1.2 million meals, he said.

“It’s provided a lot of free meals to a lot of people,” Burdin said. “Hunters are doing something they love and helping others at the same time. This is disheartening, and we certainly don’t think this program should come to an end on the unscientific assessment that has occurred here.”

Dr. William Cornatzer, a Bismarck physician and hunter, alerted health officials after he conducted his own tests on venison using a CT scanner and found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples. The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries.

“This isn’t just a food pantry problem. This is a nationwide problem,” Cornatzer said Friday.

Hunters have alternatives to lead, he said. “I’m a big hunter. I’ve already purchased four boxes of copper bullets to next year,” Cornatzer said.

The North Dakota Community Action Partnership distributed 17,000 pounds of venison from 381 donated deer after last year’s hunting season, a number that has tripled since the program began in North Dakota in 2004, executive director Ann Pollert said. At least 4,000 pounds of venison were in food pantries in the state when the health department issued its warning, she said.

The state has about 45 food pantries, and surveys have shown a need for more than 70,000 pounds of venison annually, Poller said. She hopes people will donate other types of meat.

“Meat is so expensive,” she said. “This is going to have an impact — it’s a quality, lean meat protein source that we’re losing.”

Jason Foss, president of Minot-based Pheasants for the Future, said hunters from his group donated about 100 deer this year to the program. He believes the issue of lead-contaminated meat is “a little extreme at this point.”

“Sportsmen have been shooting deer for hundreds of years with lead bullets with no problems,” he said. “I hope this program keeps rolling along because so much good comes out of it.”

___

National Shooting Sports Foundation: http://www.nssf.org

Here is a news release I saw on the Outdoor Wire.

Donation marks three million meals through Hunters for the Hungry program

When a Knott County landowner killed four nuisance elk that were destroying a family cemetery earlier this month, no one realized that the meat donated to Hunters for the Hungry would eclipse the 3 million meals prepared benchmark since the beginning of organization’s 2001 partnership with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

David Montgomery, founder and president of the Christian-based Open Hand Community Food Pantry in Lawrenceburg, accepted approximately 800 pounds of processed and packaged elk meat Thursday, February 28, at the department.

The meat will go into chilies, soups, casseroles and will make about 6,400 meals in soup kitchens and pantries.

“This donation makes it more than 73,000 pounds of meat – deer and elk – that has been donated to Hunters for the Hungry just this hunting season,” said Kent Cooper of Hunters for the Hungry. “It puts us over the 3 million meals mark since our partnership began in 2001.

“It took us about 5 years, until 2006, to reach the 2 million mark,” he added. “It’s taken only another 16 months to reach 3 million. That’s all due to the participation of the hunting public. Our hunters are doing an excellent job.”

Montgomery said his Pantry has provided meals for 466 people from 267 families in the Anderson County area since it opened last August.

Photo (left to right): David Ledford of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Kent Cooper of Hunters for the Hungry, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commissioner Dr. Jon Gassett, and David Montgomery of Open Hand Community Food Pantry loaded processed and packaged elk meat donated to Hunters for the Hungry by the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.

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The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources manages, regulates, enforces and promotes responsible use of all fish and wildlife species, their habitats, public wildlife areas and waterways for the benefit of those resources and for public enjoyment. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, an agency of the Commerce Cabinet, has an economic impact to the state of $4.8 billion annually. For more information on Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, visit our web site at fw.ky.gov.

Media Contact:
Mark Marraccini (800) 852-0842 ext. 310