This question usually comes from one of two places: a family that has just heard the words prion disease and is now worried about meals eaten years ago, or a hunter deciding what to do this season. The answers are different, and both are calmer than the headlines.
Has anyone caught it from a deer?
No case of chronic wasting disease in a person has been reported. The CDC states that it is not known whether people can be infected, and that scientists are still studying the question.
What keeps the question open is laboratory work rather than any human case. Some studies in monkeys suggest they could become infected by eating meat or brain tissue from infected deer or elk. If the disease ever did reach people, eating infected meat is the route agencies consider most likely.
A Norwegian expert committee, assessing the risk for its food safety authority in 2021, judged the risk to people from handling or eating meat from infected deer very low, while asking that exposure be limited and that surveillance of human prion disease continue.
What are hunters advised to do?
The CDC’s advice is specific and does not depend on how common the disease is where you live.
Do not shoot, handle or eat an animal that looks ill or behaves strangely, and do not touch or eat meat from an animal found dead. Wear latex or rubber gloves when field dressing. Avoid handling internal organs, particularly the brain and spinal cord. Do not use kitchen knives or tools for this work.
The CDC recommends having deer or elk tested before eating the meat, and asking a processor to handle your animal on its own so that you receive only your own meat. If an animal tests positive, the advice is not to eat it.
Testing arrangements differ by state and country, so the state wildlife or health department is the place to check before a season starts.
Is venison in shops a worry?
Nothing in the sources here says so. The agency advice above is written for people who handle and process their own animals, which is where contact with brain and spinal tissue happens.
In Europe the disease was first found in Norway in 2016, in a wild reindeer and a wild moose, and European food safety advice since then has focused on surveillance and on movement of live deer rather than on advice to consumers.
I have already eaten venison for years. Should I worry?
There is no test that can tell someone whether a past meal mattered, and there is no reported human case to base a worry on. If you have a specific concern, your GP can put the question to the national prion surveillance service, which is the route for any exposure question. This page cannot assess an individual’s risk.
Where next
Chronic wasting disease in animals describes the disease in deer. Food and BSE covers the cattle history, which is the one case where a prion disease in animals did reach people. Care settings and the rest of the questions are on the safety hub. The research version, with the humanised mouse and conversion experiments, is CWD and zoonotic risk.