BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Lead was found in nearly 6 percent of the samples from venison processed last fall under new state recommendations, North Dakota health officials said.
Sandi Washek, the state Health Department's lead program coordinator, said 404 samples of ground venison were checked from 54 meat processors across North Dakota. Each sample was about a quarter-cup in size, she said.
Results from the study were released Thursday.
The state Agriculture Department published recommendations last fall to encourage more precautions in butchering venison.
Andrea Grondahl, the state meat inspector, said butchers were urged to clean processing equipment more frequently and to check to make sure lead pieces were not caught in grinders to contaminate meat. Butchers also were asked to trim farther from bullet wounds in deer, she said.
"We did get information that led me to believe that many processors did take additional precautions this past season," Grondahl said.
Samples were sent to a lab in Iowa for testing, officials said. Grondahl called it a "basic" study.
"I think the only thing this tells us is that even when people did take additional precautions, lead fragments still remain in venison, and people need to be aware of that," Grondahl said.
Washek said state health officials continue to recommend that pregnant women and children younger than 6 avoid meat from deer killed with lead bullets. She said health officials recommend that "everybody else use their judgment to minimize their exposure."
Dan Kraft, co-owner of Butcher Block Meats in Mandan, said his shop processes hundreds of deer each year on equipment separate from that used for other meat. He said his business takes extra precautions when processing venison.
"We've always watched a little more careful on a gunshot wound than a bow and arrow wound," Kraft said.
Officials in North Dakota and other states have warned about eating venison killed with lead ammunition since last year, when physician and hunter William Cornatzer of Bismarck conducted his own tests using a CT scanner and found lead in samples of donated deer meat.
The findings led North Dakota's Health Department to order food pantries to throw out about 4,000 pounds of donated venison. Groups that organize venison donations called such actions premature and unsupported by science.
The North Dakota Community Action Partnership, which administers the Sportsmen Against Hunger program, accepted only deer killed with arrows last year, fearing that firearm-shot meat may contain lead fragments. The group says it will now resume accepting gun-killed venison, but will label it with warnings for pregnant women and young children.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Health Department released a study in November showing people who eat wild game shot with lead bullets tend to have higher lead levels in their blood. Health officials collected blood samples from more than 700 people in North Dakota, most of them adults who ate venison from deer killed with high-velocity ammunition.
