CWD and Venison Sausage: What Hunters Should Know

Short answer:

Chronic wasting disease is a prion disease of deer, elk and moose. CDC says it has been reported in wild deer in 36 states. Here in Wisconsin it's a fact of deer season. Wisconsin DATCP reports the DNR tested 17,194 samples from April 2018 through March 2019, and 1,063 were positive.

The good news: CDC says CWD infections in people have never been reported. The honest part: it's not known whether people can get it. Wisconsin's Department of Health Services treats it as a precaution and recommends eating venison only from deer where CWD was not detected. For a sausage maker, that comes down to a few habits.

Is it safe to make sausage from a deer shot in a CWD area?

Get the deer tested first. That's the CDC's advice: if you hunt where CWD is present, strongly consider having the deer tested before you eat the meat. And if it tests positive, don't eat it.

Know what the test tells you. Wisconsin DATCP says a "not detected" result doesn't guarantee the deer is CWD free. It means no prions were found in the sampled lymph nodes and the risk is low. Virginia's Department of Wildlife Resources says the same thing: the CWD tests available are not food safety tests. A not-detected result is the best information you'll get, and it's the standard every agency uses.

CDC also says don't shoot, handle or eat a deer that looks sick or acts strangely, or one found dead.

In Wisconsin, the DNR runs sampling through self-serve kiosks, some processors and taxidermists, and at-home kits from local wildlife staff. Check the DNR's CWD pages for this season's locations and whether your county is in an affected area.

Should you wait for the CWD test result before grinding?

Yes. Grinding is the step that matters. Once a deer goes through the grinder, it's in every pound of that batch and on every part of the grinder. A 2025 study published in CDC's journal found that clean venison run through a grinder after a CWD positive deer picked up prions in 5 of 8 trials.

Wisconsin DNR says results typically take 10 to 14 days. That's too long to hold meat in the fridge (2 to 3 days is the limit), so here's the plan:

1. Bone it out and trim it the way you would for sausage.
2. Bag it by deer. One deer per bag, never mixed. Write the date and the test barcode or tag number on every package. Virginia's agency recommends marking every package so meat from a positive deer can be found and pulled.
3. Freeze it at 0°F or below.
4. Grind after the result comes back. Thaw in the refrigerator, never on the counter.

Thawing and refreezing as sausage is fine. Nebraska Extension, citing USDA, says meat thawed in the refrigerator is safe to refreeze without cooking, with some loss of quality. Grinding and stuffing it partly frozen actually helps keep the fat from smearing.

The backstraps and roasts can go in the freezer the same way. They just don't need the grinder, so a positive result only costs you those packages.

Does cooking or smoking kill CWD prions?

No. This is the part people get wrong, because heat fixes almost every other meat problem.

Step	Kills bacteria?	Destroys CWD prions?
Smoking to 152 to 160°F internal	Yes	No
Cure #1 or Cure #2	Helps	No
Freezing	Stops growth	No
Normal cooking, 180 to 500°F	Yes	No (Wisconsin DATCP)
Incineration, about 1800°F	Yes	Yes

Wisconsin DNR puts it simply: prions are not destroyed even when cooking meat to safe temperatures. Your smoker can't fix a positive deer, and neither can curing or drying. That's the opposite of trichinella in bear and wild hog, where cooking to temperature is exactly the fix. With bear and hog, heat is the answer. With deer, testing is.

Why does processor sausage mix deer together?

Sausage takes volume. A lot of processors make it in big batches, and a batch can hold trim from many hunters' deer. That's a practical way to run a shop, and it's why the agencies tell you to ask how yours handles it.

CDC says that if your deer is processed commercially, ask to have it processed individually so you're only getting meat from your animal. Wisconsin DNR suggests asking whether the processor mixes meat from untested animals. Wisconsin DATCP notes that processors can batch deer with "not detected" results together on cleaned and sanitized equipment.

Making your own sausage settles the question. Your deer, your test result, your batch. It doesn't matter if you end up with 7.4 lb of trim or 31 lb. The recipes in the DeepWoodz app scale to the exact weight you have, with the cure locked safe, so one deer makes one batch.

What parts of a deer should you avoid when trimming for CWD?

Wisconsin DATCP says the highest concentrations of CWD prions are in the lymph nodes and nervous tissue. Prions have also been found in blood, muscle and fat, so no part of a positive deer counts as prion free. That's why the test comes first and the trimming habits come second.

From Wisconsin DNR and CDC:

• Minimize contact with the brain, spinal cord, spleen and lymph nodes.
• Don't cut through the spinal column except to remove the head. Bone the meat out instead of sawing chops or steaks through the backbone. Wisconsin DATCP also says to limit sawing through bone, especially the spine.
• Trim off the fat and connective tissue. DNR notes this also removes the lymph nodes. Pork butt brings the fat for the sausage anyway. The DeepWoodz standard is 50/50 venison to pork butt. See venison trim for sausage.
• Wear latex or rubber gloves while you dress and process (CDC).
• Don't use your kitchen knives for field dressing (CDC).
• Keep meat from each deer separate (Wisconsin DNR).

How do you clean a meat grinder after a CWD positive deer?

Wisconsin DNR's steps:

1. Wash all knives and equipment with soap and water to remove all organic material, and rinse with water.
2. Soak for an hour in a 50/50 solution of bleach and water. For stainless steel items, soak for a minimum of five minutes.
3. Wipe down counters and work areas with the same 50/50 bleach and water solution, and let them air dry.

Wisconsin DATCP adds two details for processors that are worth copying at home: use bleach that is at least 6% sodium hypochlorite (check the label), and after the soak, rinse everything with clean hot water to limit chlorine damage.

Do step 1 properly. Bleach can't get through bits of meat and fat, and soap alone doesn't do the job either. The 2025 study in CDC's journal found dish soap did not reliably clean prions off grinder parts, while bleach did. It found the residue on the plate and cutter and on the ring threads, so take the grinder fully apart. Don't run another deer through it until it's been through all three steps.

Bleach is hard on aluminum and some other metals, so check the maker's care instructions on any part that isn't stainless.

What do you do with venison from a CWD positive deer?

Don't eat it. CDC, Wisconsin's Department of Health Services and Virginia's wildlife agency all say the same.

• Get it out of the freezer. Wisconsin DNR says unwanted carcass waste or packaged meat should go to a landfill that accepts this waste.
• Check your GoWild account. In Wisconsin, DNR adds a replacement harvest authorization within a few days of notifying you of a positive. It's good for the rest of that season and the next one, in the same unit and land type, and you still need the right license to use it.
• Clean everything it touched using the three steps above, including the grinder if it already went through.
• If it's already mixed in a batch, the whole batch goes. That's exactly why you wait for the result and bag by deer.

The recipes in DeepWoodz are free, and they scale to the exact weight of the one deer you tested, whether that's a yearling doe or a big-bodied buck. The cure is worked out from your meat weight and locked safe.

Bottom line

Test it, bag it by deer, freeze it, and grind after the result. Cooking and smoking won't make a positive deer safe, so the test is the only real check you've got. Bone out instead of sawing through the spine, trim the fat and lymph nodes, and if one ever comes back positive, toss the meat and give your grinder the full soap, bleach and rinse treatment.

Before you get to the grinder, read how long a deer can hang, and when you're ready to cure it, how much Cure #1 per pound (0.25% of meat weight, 156 ppm).

Common questions