Sorry long message but I live down south and have been seeing this coverage as well. Gonna vent.
I hunt deer in West Virginia, as well as my native Ontario. Also hunt elk in Colorado frequently in a known CWD area. I have had or have known of a number of elk tested over the last 8 years and all tested negative. Colorado Parks and Wildlife offer the testing for free if you drop the head/skull off. Ive never seen an animal exhibiting signs of the disease. Here in WV, CWD exists in the deer herd a few hours north east of my hunting properties and is a cause for caution.
I have some pretty strong opinions on the subject but am an engineer not a neuro scientist. Here goes:
This recent media hype about CWD as a mutant disease, deer attacking, etc, is total bullshit and is a move to scare people away from consuming wild game. If you stop eating it, you likely will stop hunting it and there you go. Anti's win the long game. And rest assured that when the hunting ends, fishing will indeed follow. Your liberals and my democrats will be thrilled -'Well dont need guns anymore, better turn them in just to be safe."
These people are generally speaking, irrational lunatics. But if they can use "science" to scare the semi-sane among us to avoid eating wild game, well all the better. No thinking person takes PETA seriously, but CNN and FOX....well that's a different flavor of Koolaid to some people.
While our hunter participation numbers drop, I have seen a recent trend over the last few years whereby I increasingly get requests for venison from non-hunting friends and aquaintances that decided they wanted a more free range and organic source of meat. They are scared of the chemicals etc that CNN and FOX have told us are in our store bought beef. FIne by me, the limit on deer down here ranges from 5-9 per year and I stay busy in the woods as a result. Outsource your killing to me instead of Loblaws.
This disease CWD is not new but isn't well understood either from what I can find. Its been around for quite a long time (10+years) and you are correct that Ontario may not be immune in the future. Apparently the disease is somewhat similar to mad cow disease. Nobody has ever contracted CWD from eating venison. Do I need to repeat that? This has NOT happened per the US CDC. CNN are scaremongering to get us to stop hunting.
Steps have been taken to control the spread - You cant bring in or out of Ontario whole animal carcasses anymore. That includes the head/skull. It has to be cleaned up. I have to butcher my Ontario buck before hauling south, and my brother has to butcher his WV killed deer before hauling north to Ottawa. Many states adjacent to known CWD areas have banned hauling whole carcasses interstate for the same reasons. Smart move that makes sense.
Minimizing risks from the disease appears to be avoiding spinal fluid and brain material contact. To that end, every butcher I know that processes game now de-bone the carcass and cut from that. In other words no more loin chops or bone in steaks. And no more splitting the spine lengthwise with a saw. This has been happening for 10 years or so down here and my local area is not a CWD zone. Its just how the processors cut now. Again, makes sense. We don't know what we don't know, why gamble? Leave the bones on the carcass.
Cooking recommendations remain as usual - cook everything well done. Your call, I cant do that to a great piece of deer or elk but that's my business. All I can say is I will take my chances on game I harvested and processed anytime over what is on the shelves in the stores. I think your risk of contracting salmonella from under-cooked chicken is a lot higher than anything to do with CWD. Ive never seen a deer or elk acting the way CNN describes and if I did see an animal acting weird I obviously would not shoot and consume it. I'd shoot and call the state biologists in.
I'm reading that our deer hunting addiction to shooting trophy racks and managing the herds to produce large bucks could in fact be contributing to the spread of the disease. Younger deer like 1.5 year old bucks when protected from harvest will migrate and spread out to establish new core areas. This spread and the widespread use of feeders, etc. that concentrate deer together frequently, is apparently potentially a cause of the spread. Transmission is suggested to be via bodily fluid exchange, saliva etc. With the much lower deer density in Ontario, you have some insulation from the spread I think but again this is not well understood.
There is another disease that has really hammered the deer down here in some areas that I want to make sure isnt confused with CWD. There is a disease caused by a type of midge that strikes deer (and sheep) during drought and heatwaves that is really nasty. Deer waste away to nothing on their feet and get an incurable thirst, salivate like they have rabies etc. You find them dead near water sources. Locals call it blue tongue but the disease is actually EHD and its well understood, not transmittable to people etc. Dont confuse the two afflictions. EHD breakouts happen and when they do wow do they hammer the herd. Last serious one here was 2012.
My nickel - or dollar!
H