Group says lead found in venison

BOISE – An Idaho raptor group working to eliminate lead from ammunition has released study findings that it says show ground venison from 80 percent of 30 deer killed with high-velocity lead bullets contains metal fragments.

The Peregrine Fund, based in Boise, and researchers from Washington State University in Pullman, says it is further evidence people who eat meat from game animals shot with lead bullets risk exposure to the toxic metal.

Separately, the North Dakota Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are planning a study on nearly 700 people who eat meat from wild game harvested with lead bullets, to determine health risks, if any.

“It’s hard to keep lead out of butchered meat,” said Grainger Hunt, a scientist with The Peregrine Fund who worked on the study, which focused on 30 white-tailed deer killed by standard, lead-core, copper-jacketed bullets fired from a high-powered rifle. “They left lead in 80 percent of those deer we brought in. We found that people who consume venison often consume lead.”

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and death. There is no safe level of lead in blood.

The Peregrine Fund organized a four-day conference at Boise State University to bolster its stand against lead ammunition, with more than 50 scientific presentations on lead poisoning in wildlife and humans, including research on Inuits in Alaska and Russia who practice subsistence hunting.

The study released Tuesday comes after a Peregrine Fund board member, Dr. William Cornatzer, previously did CT scans of about 100 packets of venison that had been donated to food banks by hunters. He found 60 percent had multiple lead fragments.

Lawrence Keane, a National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman, said he hasn’t seen the latest study.

But he said initial evidence supplied by Cornatzer, a dermatologist and professor at the University of North Dakota medical school, didn’t justify a policy change or destruction of venison. Pro-hunting groups such as Safari Club International, of Somerset, N.J., gave nearly 1 million pounds of venison in 2007 to food banks as part of their humanitarian efforts.

“The Peregrine Fund is an advocacy group and has an agenda,” Keane said. “We have serious questions with the so-called science by the dermatologist. It’s my understanding there’s not a single reported case that the CDC is aware of, of anyone having elevated blood lead levels from eating game harvested with lead ammunition.”

Rick Kelley, assistant director of the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory where Cornatzer’s samples were sent by North Dakota for some testing, said he feared venison was destroyed prematurely. He said more study is needed before public policy changes are made.

“I have a concern with the way that people respond to the results of that study,” Kelley said. “In at least one location, they landfilled all the deer meat.”