OK, this is the REAL Camp Cook. For many years, I raised rabbits for show and meat. Tulerimia IS a so-called zoonotic disease (one like rabies, or plague, that is transferred from animals to humans). However it is not very zoonotic, and basic precautions will help you keep safe.
By the way, cottontails are much more likely to be tulerimic than hares, such as jackrabbits or snowshoes. Tulerimia is what Austrailia used to try to control their introduced-european rabbit problem. Unfortunately now Australia has a bunch of tulerimia-resistant bunnies.
Yes, if an animal looks or acts sick, it probably is, since nature has taught animals that if you look sick or hurt you are much more likely to be on the menu.
When you are butchering an apparently healthy animal, examine the liver. If it is the right size (not overly big or small), the right color (well, LIVER color
), and does not have white spots or grainy areas, you probably don't have a diseased animal.
Tulerimia is passed between animals more readily the hotter it is. What are the most hot months? the months without an "R" - May, June, July, and August. Which doesn't mean that you won't find a tulerimic animal during the winter, or that bunnies harvested during the summer are ill; your chances are just more likely.
Best way to find out if tulerimia is a problem in your area is to check with the County Extension Agent.
And, re: the parisites - it does sound like you are describing bot flies, and again if you can get over the thought of eating an animal that had a larva on it
, you can probably eat the rest of it.
And, if anyone really wants to know, I was born on a Navy base in Puget sound, but got here to Texas when I was 5. Been fishing since I was 7, hunting since I was 15. Cooking since then, too.
We could all get along better if people would not make flat statements when they know not whereof they speak...
Lora
