Disease risks associated with feral hogs

[dangitgriff]

I've been in the meat industry for the better part of 20 years, one of the biggest concerns with pork has always been trichinae. It's the big reason pork hasn't been consumed in a "rare" state for years. Trichinae has been mostly eliminated in the domestic population of hogs because of biosecurity measures and changes in feeding practices. In the feral population it's still very present and needs to be addressed. It's a living organism that can be destroyed by heat or cold. 145F is used by the FDA as a minimum temperature because at that temperature lethality is instantaneous. It can also be achieved at temperatures as low as 120 F for 21 hours. Alternatively freezing at a verified 5F for a minimum of 30 days also achieves lethality. If you're interested this is all USDA regulation from the code of federal regulation, 318.9. The CFR only applies to products under inspection at inspected facilities, but is useful as a guideline for your own butcher and processing processes. All that said it's your pork and your family, you can do as you like.

Thank you, that’s what I was after.
Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em!
—Griff

[richhodg66]

I eat my homegrown porkchops and store bought shoulder steaks slightly pink (medium). I eat venison back straps medium rare. I'd probably BBQ a wild pig to 180+. Don't forget tularemia in rabbits and squirrels. They get pressure cooked at 212+.

Can squirrels carry tularemia? I didn't know that. I never shoot rabbits, they're cute, I like watching them and I never liked the way they tase as well as squirrels, but I eat squirrels. Our season here seems weird to me, closes the end of February, 5then opens again June 1st. Where I grew up in the deep south, I don't even remember what the season on squirrels was, but NOBODY hunted them until there had been a frost and I still feel that way.

I've talked to people who had contracted tularemia and they told me they thought they were gonna die every day for like three months. Bad stuff, I'll have to be more careful with squirrels I guess.

[richhodg66]

I've heard bears can carry thrichinae like hogs can, is that true?

[rking22]

Had to google it to see what it was, oh well, leading cause of death is life.

[gpidaho]

I've heard bears can carry thrichinae like hogs can, is that true?

I've heard the same. Gp

[richhodg66]

Had to google it to see what it was, oh well, leading cause of death is life.

Strangely, the ticks are not nearly as bad here this year as the past few years, but I still pick up a few. I live on a wooded place with a good many places water stands if we have heavy rains like we have been abd the mosquitos are terrible, worse than Alaska was in Summer.

Getting tired of having to spray down with DEET to do anything outside, I took an old set of fatigues out and treated them with permethrin spray yesterday. That stuff will keep ticks off of you for sure, and being covered with relatively heavy clothing should help with mosquitos. I've never been a cold weather person, but have been liking Winter more and more for a while now, just wish there was more day light to do stuff during.

[Abert Rim]

Yes, bears and cougars as well can carry trichina. There was a well-reported outbreak in a Idaho a few years back after a cougar hunter made jerky and passed it around to his friends. They all got it. A guy at work was handing out bear jerky he had made. I passed.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/index.html

Steve Rinella got it, too, from bear meat:

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/steve...raction-video/

[dangitgriff]

How the hell did we ever survive living 200 years ago?
What has changed so drastically since then that we literally *fear* eating wild animals?
Shaking my head and wondering if we aren’t all evolving into a candy-assed species doomed to failure by our own hand...

[Smoke4320]

kind of like expiration dates on can of vegetables.. get mad at the wife.... shes bought into that nonsense.. open the can if it smells or looks bad throw it out otherwise eat it
vegetables don't go magically bad on such and such date.. hi fat canned items maybe vegetables no !!!

[rking22]

The more we distance ourselves from nature, the more we fear nature. Today most people are not exposed to the bacteria growing up when we used to develop resistance. Now kids are forced to use anti bacterial hand wash, soap ect constantly. We are breading better stronger germs and not building resistance. Expiration dates are for selling food to these people. If it stinks, and isn't supposed to, then put in in the compost, not so complicated. Just my opinion, don't shoot me, my imune system does not do solid lead.
And bear in mind, I believe if it's made out of meat then it's food. Untill determined otherwise...

[gpidaho]

Yes, bears and cougars as well can carry trichina. There was a well-reported outbreak in a Idaho a few years back after a cougar hunter made jerky and passed it around to his friends. They all got it. A guy at work was handing out bear jerky he had made. I passed.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/index.html

Steve Rinella got it, too, from bear meat:

https://www.wideopenspaces.com/steve...raction-video/

The links Albert shared explain perfectly why I chose not to eat feral pigs. Gp

[richhodg66]

How the hell did we ever survive living 200 years ago?
What has changed so drastically since then that we literally *fear* eating wild animals?
Shaking my head and wondering if we aren’t all evolving into a candy-assed species doomed to failure by our own hand...

In answer to your question, a lot of people didn't survive. Life expectancy was a lot shorter on average. That's the same stupid argument people always say "we never wore seat belts and rode around in pick up beds and we didn't die" except the many that did.

We eat a couple of deer a year, that's not gonna stop, but I'm not taking stupid risks especially not with my wife and kids' well-being.

[dangitgriff]

You take a stupid risk by eating ANY type of wild animal, and it appears from science-based reasoning that feral hogs should not be singled out as a higher risk than any other wild game.
So we have that going for us, which is nice.

[dverna]

If it wasn’t so darn expensive I would buy safe meals from McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell etc.

[rking22]

Seems that lettuce should be listed as very dangerous. Sever outbreaks of E. coli traceable to that sad food( I use that term loosely)

[OldBearHair]

Also Trichinellosis found in raccoon. A few questions about things that bothered me. 1. domestic pigs in a pen are nasty re-eating their feces until there is no food value to it then mixed in with new feces and eaten again. What kinds of diseases can grow in such environment? Wild hogs usually do not sleep in the same place all the time. Are they actually cleaner ? Wild animals usually die off from diseases that are fatal. Do they leave the healthy ones behind without the fatal disease? In the Boys Ranch Kitchen twenty years we used 100ppm bleach water to clean all surfaces contaminated with meat or anything else. ( Have to make new mix of bleach water each meal -- bleach in the water deteriorates quickly, next meal the water is not at 100ppm) Is the salad made on same surfaces is safe now? Have youall more questions to add to this? When bringing hot food down past 140 degrees a nice idea is to sit frozen bottles of water in the food and sit containers of food in the sink in cold water. Reason is to bring the food temperature quickly down to safe temps.

[richhodg66]

There have been several threads on here with guys who eat raccoons. No way would I ever, they are the grossest nasty disease ridden things alive.

I think the deer are pretty safe around here, all the same, I'm going to make sure it's cooked pretty thoroughly. The idea of eating pork that still shows pink is crazy. I personally would be leery of any meat that still had redness like that, but especially pork

[Smoke4320]

Just eat Chinese cause we all know what's in it and how well its stored/prepared

[Screwbolts]

And how does any of this pertain to " Hunting with CB's " ?

[dangitgriff]

? ?
Lead poisoning?
??