Nolechek Venison (Deer) Processing and Venison Products

Nolechek's Meats announces Plan for CWD Safety

Reprinted with Permission from Thorp Courier By Nancy Anderson

The Nolechek family, owner of Nolechek's Meats in Thorp, is announcing its plan for venison processing for the upcoming hunting season. The family's decisions follow their participation in an informational meeting of the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors, held in Marshfield on August 22, 2002, at which DNR officials, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture representatives, and scientists form the University of Wisconsin, Animal Sciences Department, attended.

Chronic Wasting Disease is one which attacks the nervous system of deer and elk, usually over the age of eighteen months, causing weight loss and various neurological changes and eventual animal death. The finding of CWD in an area of southwestern Wisconsin was first made during the 2001 hunting season. Concern for transference of this strain of diseases to humans, jumping species, arose in the wake of bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("Mad Cow Disease") in England, in which humans were suspected to become infected after they consumed infected beef.

Today, according to the World Health Organization and the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no evidence that Chronic Wasting Disease jumps species and can be transmitted to humans. However, those hunters and meat processors wishing to act on the side of extra safety are planning to modify their previous practices to account for the slight potential of risk.

Nolechek's Meats, which averages the receipt of five hundred deer carcasses per season, will be processing venison this year, with some modifications. They will not be accepting any deer carcasses from the CWD eradication zone or the CWD management zone. These carcasses would be identifiable to Nolechek's staff members by special tags which will be placed on the carcasses when they are registered. Deer with red tags were harvested in the eradication zone, deer with blue tags were harvested in the management zone, and deer with a silver tag were harvested elsewhere in Wisconsin. All tags will be found in the carcass's hind quarters. Nolechek's will only accept silver-tagged carcasses.

Additionally, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will sample approximately five hundred deer from each of the other hunting zones throughout the state. Nolechek's also has a plan in place to handle deer from outside the eradication and management zones which have been sampled for the CWD study. Should a deer carcass come to their plant for processing from which a sample has been taken, identifiable because its head will be missing, Nolechek's will process the deer and return the boneless to the hunter. The hunter will then keep the boneless meat until notified by the DNR that it is CWD-free and can then return the meat to Nolechek's for processing into sausage. Nolechek's will require written proof of the clean test results.

"We're doing everything we can with the information we're getting," reported Kelly Nolechek. Adds Bill Nolechek, Jr., "Our process of cutting all chops boneless protects the integrity of the spinal cord, where the disease is potentially found, anyway, and we've been doing it that way for years. But we're taking this extra safety precaution for our customers. We want them to feel safe bringing their deer here."

Nolechek's wants area hunters to know that literature on chronic Wasting Disease is available from their business. Interested parties may contact them at (800) 454-5580 or stop in and ask for the information.

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