The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention want hunters to be safe this coming season, so they've issued a warning concerning the possibility of tuberculosis passing from deer to humans following a confirmed case that led to the death of a man.
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CDC Warns Hunters That Deer Can Pass TB To Humans After Man's Death
The CDC recently released the findings of an investigation into the death of a 77-year-old Michigan man.
The man, who had 20 years of experience hunting and field dressing deer, had no known exposure to any people with TB and did not drink unpasteurized milk — eating or drinking unpasteurized dairy products can pass along M. bovis, the TB-causing bacteria carried by cattle, bison, elk, and deer.
While that's the most common way for humans to become infected with M.bovis, people can also get the bacteria through wounds when field dressing an animal or by inhaling it.
Unsplash | Philipp Pilz
The CDC believes the TB victim most likely breathed in the bacteria while slaughtering a deer. It's not clear when that might have happened, but the disease activated in 2017, taking his life.
This was the third known case of deer-to-human tuberculosis in Michigan in the past 20 years.
Unsplash | Fredrik Öhlander
However, it's also the first case since 2004, when the bacteria was transmitted through a finger wound that happened during a field-dressing. The other case happened in 2002, and it's believed that that hunter also inhaled the bacteria.
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