Fired Carcass health impilication

Caberhill

Well-Known Member
Can any one tell me what the exact health implications are should a fired carcass inadvertantly enter the food chain?

An old boy near me told me recently that August is known (to him) as the dog days / dog meat month, but, is a fired carcass safe for dog consumption? Back in the day's would fired carcass's be sent to the nackers yard for dog food? Would there have been any adverse affects?

Ali
 
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Its a carcass that has suffered heat retention after being shot, i.e. the carcass has not cooled properly.
 
That's pretty much what I thought, so if it was safe for the dogs why is it not safe for people?

There's safe, and there's saleable. Then there's legal.
With a carcase that's "fired" it's already past it's best before it gets to the point of sale, which seriously compromises it's shelf life. If all it's destined for is processing into dog food, this is no longer an issue.
 
Would you want to eat it, I don't think so, a fired carcase was usually spotted in the larder before it got anywhere near the food chain,if it did get as far as the game-dealers it was condemned and went to landfill [ at least at my Game-dealer]
 
There's safe, and there's saleable. Then there's legal.
With a carcase that's "fired" it's already past it's best before it gets to the point of sale, which seriously compromises it's shelf life. If all it's destined for is processing into dog food, this is no longer an issue.

All meat that goes into dog food has to pass meat inspection and be fit for human consumption. I wouldn't feed diseased flesh to my dog, that is what the OP is suggesting here.
 
All meat that goes into dog food has to pass meat inspection and be fit for human consumption. I wouldn't feed diseased flesh to my dog, that is what the OP is suggesting here.

I don't think there's any suggestion of the meat being "disseased". Meat at that stage is still fit for consumption, it's just not legal to sell it as such.
There was a case in my home village a few years ago where two idiots were getting hold of shelf expired chicken, washing it and selling it to local "restaurants" for use in dishes where the appearance could be disguised. No one got ill from it, but they were acting illegaly and when caught they both did time for it. Although legally all the meat was unfit for sale as food for people, alot of it was destined for pet food until they intercepted it.
 
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Not sure I would bother with it but if you must then make sure it is thoroughly cooked through. To try and kill any bacteria rather than kill your dog!!

Dave
 
I don't think there's any suggestion of the meat being "disseased". Meat at that stage is still fit for consumption, it's just not legal to sell it as such.
It is not fit for consumption, that's the whole point! The most common cause of this, are animals running a fever due to illness/disease. Your second most common would be animals with really high adrenalin levels at the time of slaughter (animal with broken leg, wounded animal that required follow up). Last on the list is not cooling the carcase quickly enough.
 
It is not fit for consumption, that's the whole point! The most common cause of this, are animals running a fever due to illness/disease. Your second most common would be animals with really high adrenalin levels at the time of slaughter (animal with broken leg, wounded animal that required follow up). Last on the list is not cooling the carcase quickly enough.

Sorry, maybe I should have said edible, rather than fit for consumption. Of course, edible may be a long way past legal.
 
It is not fit for consumption, that's the whole point! The most common cause of this, are animals running a fever due to illness/disease. Your second most common would be animals with really high adrenalin levels at the time of slaughter (animal with broken leg, wounded animal that required follow up). Last on the list is not cooling the carcase quickly enough.

Thanks Apache,

It's interesting to note that heat retention is last on the list, I never realised the other two where even contenders for the cause.

Can you elaborate on what the health implications, in layman's terms for us simples. Would it be the same as eating rotton meat?

I asked the question because it has popped up in my mind a few times. Not becuase I thought it would make good dog food. I wouldn't feed my dog anything I wouldn't eat myself on the same note though I'm not going to copy her and eat whatever she finds lying dead and smelly when out and about.

I've seen it mentioned numerous time that a fired caracas should be condemend but never an explaination into why.
 
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The Q10 rule of thumb says that for every 10 degree drop in temperature the rate of reaction halves; therefore if you take a carcass from 37 degrees (living temp) down to 27 degrees the rate of decomposition will be roughly half, take it down again to 17 and it will be half that at 27 (0.25 of the original rate), take it down again to 7 and it will be 0.125 of the original and take it down to larder temp it will obviously be lower again, the cooling decreases the amount of energy available to bacteria and enzymes for reactions and so slows the rate of decomposition. As a rough example going on the figures above to make the maths easy a carcass cooled to only 7 degrees will be somewhere near the same state after 8 days (1/0.125) as a carcass maintained at 37 degrees for 1 day. That's why the shelf life is affected so much if the carcass is fired, I hope this makes sense!
 
The Q10 rule of thumb says that for every 10 degree drop in temperature the rate of reaction halves; therefore if you take a carcass from 37 degrees (living temp) down to 27 degrees the rate of decomposition will be roughly half, take it down again to 17 and it will be half that at 27 (0.25 of the original rate), take it down again to 7 and it will be 0.125 of the original and take it down to larder temp it will obviously be lower again, the cooling decreases the amount of energy available to bacteria and enzymes for reactions and so slows the rate of decomposition. As a rough example going on the figures above to make the maths easy a carcass cooled to only 7 degrees will be somewhere near the same state after 8 days (1/0.125) as a carcass maintained at 37 degrees for 1 day. That's why the shelf life is affected so much if the carcass is fired, I hope this makes sense!

Makes perfect sense!
 
It is not fit for consumption, that's the whole point! The most common cause of this, are animals running a fever due to illness/disease. Your second most common would be animals with really high adrenalin levels at the time of slaughter (animal with broken leg, wounded animal that required follow up). Last on the list is not cooling the carcase quickly enough.

Yes as you say a wounded animal that needs to be followed up, always found that the carcase of a stag in the rut was the most likely to fire [ when adrenalin is high] as for the cooling aspect the worst cause of this is not removing the back passage soon enough a lot of stalkers these days remove the back passage but leave the aitch bone intact
best cooling is achieved by cutting through the aitch bone.
 
It would be fine to feed to your dog, as long as your dog is used to eating flesh, hounds are fed all sorts of fallen farm stock, and they are expected to hunt all day on it and do so without any complications. I am not suggesting you feed putrid meat but just because it is not fit for human consumption does not mean it is not ok for your dog.
 
What are the phsyical signs of a a fired carcasse, has it basically gone off ? Smells bad and a 'unhealthy' colour ? Or is it more subtle than that ?
 
All meat that goes into dog food has to pass meat inspection and be fit for human consumption. I wouldn't feed diseased flesh to my dog, that is what the OP is suggesting here.

Just about every hound pack in the country feeds 'diseased meat', usually raw in the shape of fallen stock to hounds and in the past I have fed many tons of 'diseased meat' to top quality track greyhounds and to lurchers and terriers so I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you.
 
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