Rabbits safe to handle/eat?

[Ash]

I've spent three mornings grouse hunting now, without seeing a single bird. I do however have a contingent of bunnies that seem to be escorting me through the woods. I know it's open season on the little buggers, but are they safe to handle/eat? I saw some mention of Tularemia in another post, WDFW says wear gloves and wash your hands, cook meat well. Does that cover it or is there more I need to know? I'm on the wet side of the state if it matters.

[quadrafire]

I have cleaned probably a million rabbits without gloves. When I was younger, in the Midwest. I think now I would wear gloves. They are cheap insurance.

[Kain]

Wear gloves and check the liver for enlargement or white spots.  Rabbits that are ill do not last very long.  So as long as they are acting normal you are probably safe.


http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150_12220-27293--,00.html

Tularemic hares and cottontails have been observed to behave oddly, to run slowly, and to be captured easily. Infected rabbits appear to be tame or in a stupor; they do not raise their heads or carry their front feet well; they rub their noses and forefeet into the ground. They have recurrent muscle spasms, and stagger for a few yards between spasms. Clinical signs in experimentally infected red foxes were loss of appetite, diarrhea, and noisy labored breathing.
In general, the gross and histopathologic lesions of tularemia in mammals resemble those of bubonic plague, or paratuberculosis, in rodents. Typical gross lesions are white foci or spots scattered throughout the liver (see illustration), spleen and lymph nodes, varying in size from pinpoint to large irregular conglomerate foci several millimeters in diameter. The spleen and liver may be dark bluish-red and enlarged.
Lesions in naturally infected muskrats and beaver may include excessive clear dark fluid in the peritoneal and thoracic cavities; petechiae or minute hemorrhages in the subcutaneous fat; congestion in the lungs, liver and spleen; and focal necrosis in the spleen, liver, kidneys and mesenteric lymph nodes.

[carpsniperg2]

 

[Ash]

Thanks for the info, I think I'll tell the wife to prepare for rabbit stew tomorrow.

[Hunterman]

Ash,,,,NO,,, As a rule of thumb,," Do not kill, and eat any rabbit until AFTER the first HARD frost".. Cooking a rabbit with tularaemia, coxacylious(sp? ) WILL NOT KILL IT. Rabbit fever can be deadly... This info comes from old time rabbit hunters.. Rabbit fever can and has made intire communities ill..I would not risk killing any rabbits yet...Its not worth the risk for my family...Why the state has the season so damn early is beyond me  

Hunterman(Tony)

[Kain]

"Never eat a rabbit in any month without an "R" in its name."

I have heard that also but have also heard that its an old folk tale.  Does cold weather cure Tularemia or kill its carriers?  If a rabbit has the fever in late summer, and is still alive come winter, it will still have it.  You still have to use care and check the liver, winter or not.

[Hunterman]

The hard cold weather kills the carrier (infected rabbit)..That's why at times around berry bushes, brush, and some other rabbit holding areas you'll see the whole skeleton of rabbits..If a 'yote ain't going to eat one neither will I

Hunterman(Tony)

[DeerThug]

Yup dont mess with the hype and pastes off of the web - months that have R.  figgure it out R = Rabitt.  How much smimpler do you want it.

[Ash]

The "months with R" axiom would be ok, if I wasn't being told not to touch them in SeptembeR... 

I've found that tularemia infections have to be reported to the Department of Health. In their reporting procedures they state that fewer than 10 cases per year are reported, and their incidence rates reflect that statistic. Info can be found here: http://www.doh.wa.gov/notify/nc/tularemia.htm

They do state that in 2008 most infection(4) had some relation to wild rabbits. I'm going to poke around and see if I can get any info on the cases that were reported... i.e. month of occurrence. Still, the rate of human infection seems pretty low all things considered. Last year 5 of the 6.4+ million residents of Washington were infected, one of those 5 was also the only person to have died from tularemia or tularemia related causes since 1986(when reporting of cases started).

I'm not saying it's safe, this is just the info I've gathered from WA DOH.