Those of us working in the meat science profession are constantly harping on the mantra of “Keep it clean, keep it cold” when working with meat and meat products, and that certainly applies to wildharvested venison. The widely variable conditions, environment and temperatures that are common for wildharvested venison provide ample opportunity for a generous amount of bacterial contamination.
If conditions allow growth of contaminating bacteria, the most obvious result is meat spoilage. In fact, the discoloration and off-odors that occur as meat spoils are an obvious warning that excess bacterial growth has occurred, and discourages consumption as a result. However, there is another concern for bacterial growth that can have a major impact on human health, and that is the growth of diseasecausing (pathogenic) bacteria. These microorganisms typically do not affect meat color or odor and, consequently, these bacteria are likely to be consumed with the product if present, and result in illness.
Several research studies on both free-range and farmed deer have documented the presence of several different bacterial pathogens. These pathogens include Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica, Yersinia enterocolitica and Clostridium perfringens (French et al., 2010; Renter et al., 2006). Other pathogens of concern for venison and venison products include Staphylococcus aureus, which usually originates from human sources, and Clostridium botulinum, which is rare but remains a very serious concern if growth occurs. There have been several documented human illness outbreaks that originated from venison contaminated with these pathogens, particularly E. coli (Keene et al., 1997; Rounds et al., 2012).
Because bacteria are ubiquitous
