ST. PAUL -- Hunting and health experts do not fully understand what dangers, if any, lead in deer meat may present, but with the deer hunting season about to open, Minnesota officials say there are precautions hunters should take.
But state officials are resuming a venison donation program for needy Minnesotans after it was abruptly canceled last year over meat safety fears. Since ground venison appears more likely to contain lead contamination, food shelves will distribute only whole cuts this year.
Restrictions
Health and Department of Natural Resources officials said pregnant women and children younger than 6 should not eat meat from deer killed by lead bullets.
Federal officials are conducting a study in North Dakota to determine what dangers lead fragments in meat may pose. Until those results are known, Minnesota officials decided to make suggestions but are not placing restrictions on hunters.
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"We've long known venison is a great source of lean, healthy protein," said Dave Schad, director of the DNR Fish and Wildlife Division. "Our research will help hunters ensure that's exactly what they are serving themselves and others."
That research, conducted during the summer, confirmed that both rapid-expansion and controlled-expansion bullets with exposed lead can contaminate meat. But bullets with copper covering lead do not have the same problem.
DNR officials did not recommend that hunters move to all-copper or copper-clad bullets, but said they wanted hunters to know those bullets could make meat safer.
"Evaluate your own circumstances, your own family situation, your own health," DNR Commissioner Mark Holsten said. "We have got a lot more research we are going to have to do."
The study, which DFR officials said was just a first step, showed muzzleloader bullets and shotgun slugs resulted in a less widespread distribution of lead than lead rifle bullets.
About 75 percent of deer taken during hunting season are killed by rifle bullets.
Lou Cornicelli, DNR's big game specialist, said the study showed that when lead rifle bullets were used, the 2 inches around the bullet wound contains fewer than half of the fragments. In some cases, lead fragments were found as far as 18 inches from where the bullet traveled.
The study found that bullets hitting bones, such as those in the hind quarter of an animal, tended to fragment more than those that struck another part of the body.
