Idaho raptor group: Study confirms lead fragments in venison

An Idaho raptor group working to eliminate lead from ammunition released findings Tuesday it said shows that ground venison from 80 percent of deer killed with high-velocity lead bullets contains metal fragments.

The Peregrine Fund, based in Boise, and researchers from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., say 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.

The suggestion that lead bullets could make venison unsafe for humans has prompted outrage from pro-hunting groups such as Safari Club International, of Somerset, N.J., and the Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry group, after North Dakota and Minnesota in March and April instructed food banks there to pull hunter-donated venison from their shelves.

"This is one more piece of evidence that points to lead bullets as a source of contamination in our environment," Rick Watson, vice president of The Peregrine Fund, said in a statement ahead of a presentation of the study, which focused on 30 white-tailed deer killed by standard, lead-core, copper-jacketed bullets fired from a high-powered rifle.

The Peregrine Fund organized the 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. Groups, including Safari Club, 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," said Keane. "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."

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.

North Dakota Department of Health epidemiologists said the agency's planned study with the CDC will investigate whether there are any health risks for people, by attempting to determine whether eating wild game harvested with lead bullets results in increased blood lead levels.

"This study is an important opportunity to help us understand whether swallowing lead bullet fragments causes increased levels of lead in the blood," said state Health Officer Terry Dwelle. "We're hopeful that the study will give us information on which we can base any future recommendations."

In the study findings released Tuesday, authors, including Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine professor Russell Tucker, found widespread dispersal of metal fragments after taking X-rays of 30 deer shot in Wyoming and processed at 30 different butchers in that state.

Ground venison from 80 percent of the deer had metal fragments, and 92 percent of those were lead. In addition, metal fragments were found in some steaks, even though processors normally discard meat near the wound and along the bullet's path.

The Peregrine Fund got its start in 1970 with peregrine falcon recovery efforts and now works to restore California condors to northern Arizona's Grand Canyon region. Watson said the group began suspecting a connection between lead poisoning, bullets, venison and humans after researchers and the Arizona Game and Fish Department discovered about 90 percent of 60 condors that now soar over the Grand Canyon and southern Utah were ailing from lead poisoning after eating hunter-killed deer and leftover gut piles.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year signed a law banning lead bullets from condor habitat in his state, and Arizona wildlife managers have a voluntary program encouraging hunters to replace lead bullets with nontoxic copper ammunition. Condor deaths in Arizona dropped from five after the 2006 hunting season to none in 2007.

"We believe that copper bullets will become the ammunition of choice for hunters to benefit themselves, their families, and wildlife," Watson said.

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AP writers James MacPherson and Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Safari Club: http://www.scifirstforhunters.org

Farmers and Hunters: http://www.fhfh.org/home.asp

Peregrine Fund: http://www.peregrinefund.org

National Shooting Sports Foundation: http://www.nssf.org