Wormy ducks

[Purebred Redneck]

This thread is a request of my brother

They went and shot 2 dozen ducks on saturday morning and when they were cleaning they found 1/2" to 3/4" worms inside the breast tissue --- in the actual meat itself.

About half of them had it.


I think he's going to throw those away but is this common???

[jimh]

Red, i would post this question to the MDC as well. also if you want i can post it on missuriwhitetails, they have a pretty active waterfowl section. let me know.

[Purebred Redneck]

feel free to post it

[jimh]

they want to know what species they where (the ducks, not the worms)
you may want to t ake a look over there.

[Purebred Redneck]

Not sure. Most of the ducks they shoot are mallards and S**t ducks as he calls them.

I would be absolutly shocked if he killed pintails, red heads, or wood ducks.

[Purebred Redneck]

I take that back - I just called him

Mallards and pintails

Both had them

[klsm54]

That sounds pretty disgusting to me......

I searched a couple fish and game sites, along with a couple forums, but found nothing. One would think this would be a hot topic. I never found anything like that, but I haven't hunted ducks for maybe 15 years now.

[Jack]

I wouldn't take any chances. Trash em. Even if it's safe to eat em, it's disgusting enough you're not going to enjoy them.

[Bubba]

I posted this question on a national waterfowl web site and asked if anyone could help me with an answer... I've personally never seen it but it's called "rice breast" ... here's one of the responses...
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Do a search on the main forum or the intertubes for sarcocystis or sarcocystosis. Many game and fish sites have pretty disgusting pictures.

Those that pluck birds have likely eaten it. I wouldn't eat it knowingly simply because a predator is needed for part of the complicated life cycle, (there's five to seven steps) of the pest so don't be pitching the infected birds into a ditch either.

Various other animals including deer and elk have them but often times the cysts are too small to see.

This is from wiki:

Sarcocystis are a type of Protist. This apicomplexan parasite's life cycle is heteroxenous, meaning that it has more than one obligatory host in its life cycle. Sarcocystis relies on the predator-prey relationship of animals. Oocysts are passed through the feces of an infected individual where it undergoes sporogony and becomes infected itself. The oocysts then undergo lysis where the sporocysts are left out in the environment. An intermediate host such as a cow or pig will ingest a sporocyst. Sporozoites are then released in the body and migrate to the muscle tissue where it undergoes asexual reproduction. Once the intermediate host is eaten by the definitive host such as a dog or human, the parasite undergoes sexual reproduction to create macrogamonts and a mircogamonts. They create a zygote which develops into an oocyst, which is passed through the feces completing the life cycle.

Human infection is rare but can happen when undercooked meat is ingested. Symptoms include diarrhea, which may be mild and transient or severe and life threatening. Human outbreaks have occurred in Europe. Rats are a known carrier.
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There were 18 other responses but most of them were personal experiences having to do with this parasite...

[Purebred Redneck]

He says thanks

[klsm54]

I learned something.. I had never heard of this before. From what I read it can be found in a lot of different game animals, and birds.

[Purebred Redneck]

Now that's nasty