Blood Borne Disease

Safer than working on a human with no protection, that's for sure. While there are some diseases that pass from animal to human, there are a whole lot less than what pass from human to human.

I've never worn gloves my whole life and done a lot of animals with no ill results, but the past few years I've changed my MO. I now carry gloves in my pocket and carry a box in my truck. If nothing else, it's a lot easier to clean up afterward and just throw away a pair of disposables. I've heard professional people recommend glasses also to protect your eyes from fluids, and I guess it wouldn't hurt.....

Well I’m no expert but….Hogs and bear carry trichinosis which I’ve read can be contracted through skin contact. Rabbits can give you Rabbit fever which can be fatal, but avoidable with gloves. You already know about rabies especially in small scavengers. Squirrels have wolves under the skin in fall but they are no threat to us. Your best bet would be to talk with your dogs vet or state game warden(s). Your risk is low.

People who have never gotten a zoonotic disease can still get one. Gloving up is cheap and easy. No reason no to do it.

Gully said:

I have only recently taken up hunting. A lifelong interest but one that hasn't been realized until my father-in-law has taken me under his wings.

I work in EMS and one of our core rules is isolating ourselves from bodily fluids. I asked my father-in-law about whether he was worried about catching some disease from the fluids of the animals he guts and skins and his reply was, "I've been doin' this since I was a boy; I ain't dead yet and I have no idea."

For instance, I'm very interested in coon hunting and I know that rabies is primarily saliva borne. I am not sure of any transmittable diseases game animals might carry. Is it safe to go in "bareback" or should I glove up?

Apologies if this is a dumb question. Just curious. Thanks.

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There is some risk, yes. The risk is minor and within *my* tolerance and I used a work an ER. Truthfully if I remember the stats right you are more likely to be infected by ticks or mosquitoes than blood in my area. If you are truly concern contact the county extension agent. He will have access to USDA studies or at least be able to point you in the right direction.

Rabies doesn't get transmitted by blood...but you don't know if an animal is sick from rabies or other pathogens simply by visual observation in most cases... so caution is prudent, as you don't know what it might have...

Tularemia (rabbit fever) would be transmitted by blood, so cuts on the hands would be bad, and ticks may transmit it too.

Trichinosis is transmitted by ingestion of the larvae of the worm, from undercooked pork or bear.

You are at much more risk of getting a pathogen from a flea or a tick bite, from one of those parasites coming off the game animal rather then from the fluids of the game animal, or something from a mosquito as you move through the woods. There are 14 different maladies that may come from a tick bite. Malaria, Yellow Fever, West Nile Virus, and Heartworm (for your hunting dog) all come from skeeters...though Malaria and Yellow Fever have by and large been eradicated from most of North America, and giving your dog a preventive medicine will ward off the heartworm.

LD

Killed a deer on a Fla. WMA & part of the requirements were to have the field biologist dress it at a check station. While the fellow was processing mine another hunter came in with a hog and the biologist waved him on.......stating to me that he refused to process the things anymore as he'd contracted an infection that nearly cost him his arm a couple of years previously.

I don't recall what he said the condition was, but the thought stuck in my mind to the degree that I'll not gut another less elbow length gloves.

And now........we have to consider this

Gotta love ww.weaselzippers.us headlines and comments - eddd7

CDC Discovers New Virus in Kansas, Caused By A Blood Sucking Tick, Not A Democrat Voter


Another new virus since the open borders executive order.

Via FOX News

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday the discovery of a new virus that may be spread through tick or insect bites. The virus may have contributed to the 2014 death of a Kansas man who was otherwise healthy.

Working with experts from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and University of Kansas Medical Center (UKMC), researchers found that the virus is part of a group of viruses called thogotoviruses. The virus was named Bourbon virus for the county in which the patient lived. The case is the first time a thogotovirus has been shown to cause human illness in the U.S. and the eighth known case of it causing symptoms in people.

According to the report, the patient, who was over 50 years old, was working outside on his property in late spring 2014 when he received several tick bites and found an engorged tick on his shoulder. Several days later, he fell ill with nausea, weakness and diarrhea. The next day, he developed a fever, anorexia, chills, headache, myalgia, and arthralgia. The patient visited his primary care physician on the third day, at which point he was prescribed an antibiotic for a presumed tickborne illness. The next morning, his wife found him experiencing reduced consciousness and we was taken to the local hospital.

Test results for many infectious diseases came back negative and a sample of the patient’s blood was sent to the CDC, which found evidence of an unidentified virus. Researchers used Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) and determined it was a new virus.

I do some taxidermy work and I have two rules for myself. I would pick up a dead coyote or other meat eating animal by the legs without wearing gloves but if I skin a meat eating animal I would always wear vinyl gloves. A taxidermist that lives less than 15 miles from me died of rabies. Another taxidermist I know got a bad disease from working with a wild goat cape. I am also concerned about sawing through the brain on a deer with a saw because of the various diseases like cwd that may be active in the brain cavity. I have gutted and skinned many deer without wearing gloves but it is so easy to carry a pair of vinyl gloves in your pocket when hunting that today when I gut or skin a deer I always wear vinyl gloves. It's so easy to take the gloves off when you are finished and throw them in the trash. No other cleanup needed.

i'm a hog trapper and hunter. In my pickup are several pairs of kitchen gloves. They cost about $1 at the dollar stores. Those gloves are cheap insurance against some serious diseases that wild hogs are known to carry.

Had a high school teacher who was a veterinarian. He had Bang's disease (brucellosis). The man was in almost constant pain.

Gloves, yes we wear rubber or vinyl gloves to skin furbearers, deer and elk also. Keeps your hands warm if you are doing it in the field is an added benefit. We prefer to wear some type of glove when handling them in the field as well. Coyotes in particular, and anything else that needs it, get fleas sprayed as many times as it takes to get rid of them. The coyotes usually get sprayed in a plastic bag or an old plastic feed sack and keep them in there a few minutes, but we don't transport or store them in plastic. Cats usually get sprayed just once as they don't "usually"have many fleas. There are exceptions, though. We don't have a lot of rabies cases around here. On the east coast is a different story.

You have to be extra careful if you have any open cuts on the hands.
OYE

I like using gloves.

Oven cleaning gloves, well fitting with grippy tips.

Given the likelihood of my hands being dry, chapped and potentially cracked in addition to wicked sharp knives flashing about... I figure why risk anything and keep personal clean-up to a minimum as well.

Gloves give that opportunity for a second thought in rubbing one's eye's or addressing nasal invaders with otherwise bio-nasty hands.

Sure they can look a bit girlie - especially a yellow pair with flowers and bees but I always know where they are if I put them down.

Todd.

I use the thin vinyl gloves instead of kitchen gloves when I do taxidermy work because they are more sensitive and I am always using a scalpel instead of a knife. In taxidermy work I am always feeling the thickness of the skin with my left hand while I am cutting with my right hand. That way I don't cut a hole in the the skin or leave flesh on the skin. The skin comes off looking like a white piece of typing paper.

Gloves ?? Yes !!

Count me among the glove users. I don't buy anything real fancy, just the nitrile gloves that Harbor Freight sells 100/box for less than $10. I'm always getting little scratches on my hands going through brush or working with hand tools and I look at the gloves and being cheap insurance and also convenient regarding clean-up.
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I wear rubber gloves and plastic "shoulder sleeves" when gutting big game, but don't wear gloves typically when cleaning game birds.

I've often thought about this, but after the first time of trying to wear gloves, I realized there is really no practical way to avoid contact with the blood.

I knew a guy many years ago that caught some kind of enzyme from the blood after taking a bite out of a deer heart. We had told him that everyone does that with their first big game kill, he played along. It didn't kill him, but he had to be taken to the ER just hours after he took that bite. On another note, I'm one of those that likes my red meat while it's still warm, in which I have actually enjoyed a nice hunk of back strap fresh off the back from time to time. Probably not the best practice, but it's never made me ill.

So I gotta say, in all the years of hunting I've really never worried much about exposure to blood. Now if it's a bear or pig, that's a different story, now were talking trichinosis. I'm kind of hyper phobic about that disease.

GS

Gloves are cheap and don't take up much room in a pocket, so I see no reason not to use them when dressing game. I'm less concerned about birds as they carry fewer diseases that are easily transmitted to people via blood, but I still don't necessarily want to walk around all day with dried blood on my hands if there is no nearby water source for cleanup.

Mammal blood. I just don't trust it.

I wear gloves occasionally for rabbits and predators. I do not wear them for ungulates.

I glove up on all animals as there usually isn't running water available for hand washing where I hunt. It's very simple, easy and inexpensive to put on a pair of the latex disposable gloves when field dressing/skinning any animal, and it keeps your hands clean.

I never gave it any thought growing up on a farm, butchering, and hunting all the time 50-60 years ago.

We didn't know any better back then, and there was nothing like cheap disposable gloves anyway.

Now?
I won't touch a dead animal with my bare hands, let alone field dress one.

And Ticks scared me out of the spring woods mushroom hunting after a close friends wife contacted Lyme disease 10 years ago and still never got completely over it to this day.

It crippled her for the rest of her life.

Now we got this tick born illness 80 miles from here in Bourbon County KS.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_virus

rc

I use non-disposable rubber gloves. A bit awkward, but keeps me clean. I have no idea what the risks are when cutting into an animal using your bare hands, so I use the gloves. Like chicken soup, it can't hurt.

Like chicken soup, it can't hurt.

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Ever spill a hot bowl in your lap???

I'm 68 and my brother is 78. We have both hunted since early boyhood and have shot almost every critter on the planet. Also skinned, gutted, and processed hundreds of animals. About 30 years ago, my brother retired from the Army, then went to nursing school. During that training he became concerned about blood born illnesses and started to wear gloves. That lasted one season; I never joined him. So here we are at our current age, skinning squirrels, deer, elk, antelope, doves, ducks, turkeys, etc. Should I be concerned? Maybe.....but I'm not.

Rabbits, hogs, and furbearers, yes. I cannot think of a reason to bother for any of the other stuff.