gandilamont

How common is Trichinosis in black bears? Especially in Oregon. I recently heard you should not make jerkey out of bear because it wont kill the Trichinosis. Also I've heard just freezing you bear meat will kill Trichinosis. Is that true? All the bear and cougar we ate last year was pre-frozen, then cooked normally and no one got sick but I would really like to make some jerky this year.

Cowboy Al

From what I've seen itcan be as high as 15-20% of bears (maybe more thats what the study I looked at said). Meat should be cooked to a minimium of 137F to kill the parasite. Here's what that same cooking site said about freezing :
"At 5° Fahrenheit, which is over 25° below freezing, for a piece of meat 6" or less, it takes 20 days to kill trichina. For a piece of meat more than 6" thick but less than 27" thick, it takes 30 days. The colder the temperature, the less time required. At negative 10°F, for a piece of meat 6" or less, it takes 10 days to kill trichina; for a piece of meat more than 6" thick but less than 27" thick, it takes 20 days. At negative 20°F below zero, for a piece of meat 6" or less, it takes 6 days to kill trichina, for a piece of meat more than 6" thick but less than 27" thick, it takes 12 days. The typical chest freezer should hold food at about 0°."
I wouldn't chance it and make sure it was cooked to at least 150F. (this is in my humble opinion)

Dan in Alaska

Here's a link to a fishing/hunting forum in your area where they discuss black bear meat processing. You might find some of the information and links useful.

http://www.ifish.net/forum/showflat....page=1#1160662

game4lunch

Is this all because bear is related to pork? Sounds like you should cook it as thoroughly as pork. Matbe freexe it, then thaw it out to make jerky.(?)

iloveto4x4innc

My uncle was a vet. and did a lot of research on Trichinosis over many years. He said that as long as it was deep frozen, you can cook pork just like you would beef. I would assume that bear's a lot like pork in that regard. We eat our pork rare all the time and nobody in the family's gotten sick yet(10yrs).

DARKSIDE55

A black bear is nothing but a wild pig with bigger teeth and claws. LOL But it's true. I have dispatched and eaten over 150 bears in my time. I've prepared it every way conceivable for human consumption. But the general rule of thumb for all pork (black bear) is that it should be cooked well done. That being said, I've made jerky by drying it and by smoking it. Have never had a problem either way. I now have most of my bears made into pepperettes (slim jims, hot rods, etc.).

manitou210

Back in the 60s my brother-inlaw a doctor with two other doctors flewinto northern Quebec on moose hunt, they shot a black bear and cooked some up, my brother-inlaw passed on the bear meat, the next day he flew out his two buddies one died and the other was in hospital very sick for some time, but made it. Trichinosis

DARKSIDE55

We had a similar experience but fortunately nobody died. But it wasn't bear meat. It was broiled pork chops. Go figure! Like I said, I've eaten a lot of bears fixed just about everyway possible. Me and my family are fine and so are my hunters. I really think that trichinosis in a bear would be more prevalent in a bear that was taken close to farm land where there are livestock such as pigs being raised. That's why I find it unusual that it would happen in Northern Quebec. But the general rule...cook it well done!! Here's one more thought for you and it's really something to think about. If they were hunting through an outfitter or an outfitter that was baiting in close proximity to where the bear was taken...(wasmaybe the outfitterbaiting with pork meat scraps?).

txhunter58

It is not that bears and pigs are really related, it is because of what they eat.They get infected by eatingraw meat from other infected animals. Pigs that are wild and eat anything, including dead animals, and domestic pigs that are fed raw garbage are subject to getting trichinosis. Bears are suseptable because they will also eat anything, especially dead animals that could be infected, which infects them.

I am not sure if the jerking process would kill trichina organisms or not, but I don't think I would want to try it.

As an interesting side note, it has been illegal to feed raw garbage to pigs in the US for years. That lowers the odds that a pig would be infected to almost 0% in a commercial setting, but not for wild pigs.

That said, as bad as the disease is, I won't ever be eating any pig or bear meat that has not been thouroughly cooked!

MinnFinn

Bears eat just about every conceivable thing that is edible and some you've got to question why, much like hogs. That's a big reason I don't hunt/eat bears. With hogs you have some control of what they eat in a controlled setting. Bears you can't. That's just my take on it.

So, if you do eat, I'd say cook it until you know you've killed whatever parisite the thing has acquired.