Health department won't advise against venison yet

By Ryan Woodard, Journal staff | Wednesday, April 09, 2008

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The South Dakota Department of Health has provided guidelines to state food pantries for distributing donated venison in light of a recent lead-poisoning scare but has stopped short of recommending the organizations no longer serve it.

State health officials are waiting for test results from other states before making further recommendations.

Meanwhile, Community Food Banks of South Dakota won't accept any more venison donations until more information is available.

"Right now, we've asked the agencies we deal with to hold the deer meat until we get somewhat clear guidelines on it," said Matt Gassen, executive director of that agency.

Community Food Banks has branches in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

The state health department, Sportsmen Against Hunger and the state Department of Game, Fish & Parks recently began investigating whether donated venison could pose health risks because of the possibility of lead poisoning.

The investigation was spurred by North Dakota health officials' decision to order food pantries to throw out donated venison because of concerns the meat could contain lead from bullets used to kill the animals.

Testing had revealed lead in some of the venison donated to food pantries in the state.

Gassen said he plans to consult the state health department for further guidance on the issue before deciding whether to distribute the meat again.

The state health department has posted a "fact sheet" on its Web site about the potential for lead poising in venison and has distributed the sheet to the food banks.

The fact sheet warns citizens that trace amounts of lead can be found in donated wild game venison and recommends certain serving sizes for people of different ages. The sheet can be found on the Web page at doh.sd.gov/lead.aspx.

Doneen Hollingsworth, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Health, didn't confirm whether the department would issue further advice or guidelines on the matter. That will depend on what is found from the tests being performed by the states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota, she said.

"There may be no need for any additional information," Hollingsworth said. "It's possible that our fact sheet, our guidance, won't change at all. It will depend on the results."

She said the department decided not to do any of its own testing because it would duplicate the tests being performed in other states.

Hollingsworth said she is not aware of any reported deaths or complaints of illness from lead-poisoned venison.

Rapid City resident and longtime hunter Loren Ward doesn't understand the concern about lead poisoning in venison.

"On elk and deer, any lead you would ingest for that would be very little," he said. "I don't know where they're coming from."

Ward, who has been hunting for about 40 years, said he and many other acquaintances have ingested a lot of venison from deer over the years without any problems.

"I've never even heard of somebody getting sick," he said.

One of the main organizations responsible for distributing venison to food pantries is recommending that food pantries continue to distribute the meats.

"We're going to follow the lead of the department of health," Ron Fowler, a consultant for Sportsmen Against Hunger, said. "As long as they're not advising a hold on the meat, we're telling the various pantries to go ahead and distribute the meats to needy families as they have been."

Fowler said he will continue to work with the department of health and the food pantries to decide the best way to move forward with their program.

Dr. Kevin Weiland, a Rapid City doctor who specializes in internal medicine, said he isn't very concerned about levels of lead in venison and will continue to eat it himself.

He believes there may have been other problems that led to the discovery of lead in the North Dakota deer.

"I wonder if the processing of the meat was the problem in North Dakota rather than the shot used to kill the beast," he said in an e-mail. "The section of the meat with the lead shot should always be discarded."

Lead poisoning comes from chronic or long-term exposure to lead, which can lead to learning disabilities and irritability in kids along with gastrointestinal symptoms such as poor appetite and abdominal discomfort, according to Weiland.

"Acute exposure is very rare and can result in seizures, coma and paralysis," he said.

Gassen is concerned about the possibility of losing the meat donated to the food banks.

"We don't want to lose this meat because it's so desperately needed," he said. "Meat is such a hard product for us to get through our donation programs."

Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com