Parasitized waterfowl?

[Livewire322]

Hello all,

I’ve been waterfowling in the lowermainland for a number of years now but had never seen anything like this until last Sunday (November 12th).

I shot one pintail from a group of five as the flew past me, he looked perfectly healthy from the outside.
When I de-breasted the duck I noticed small rice sized things in the meat. My initial though was worms, but they didn’t move at all so I think they were cysts.

A quick stretch of the google-fu revealed a few articles on this “rice breast” affliction but no definitive answer as to if it’s safe to eat.
I cut out the cysts; they were fairly easy to see and didn’t go very deep into the meat.

Has anyone else seen this before? Is it still edible? Is this common and somehow I’ve been luck not to have found it before now?

I’d hate to waste a duck if it is edible... but it doesn’t seem appetizing. It’s in a well marked bag in the freezer awaiting a decision...

[Livewire322]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/webkit-fake-url://aaab86b2-32c6-4934-b33d-40e26c9c36b4/imagejpeghttps://i.imgur.com/ZEJBXe8.jpg

[deltawaterfowler]

Hello all,

I’ve been waterfowling in the lowermainland for a number of years now but had never seen anything like this until last Sunday (November 12th).

I shot one pintail from a group of five as the flew past me, he looked perfectly healthy from the outside.
When I de-breasted the duck I noticed small rice sized things in the meat. My initial though was worms, but they didn’t move at all so I think they were cysts.

A quick stretch of the google-fu revealed a few articles on this “rice breast” affliction but no definitive answer as to if it’s safe to eat.
I cut out the cysts; they were fairly easy to see and didn’t go very deep into the meat.

Has anyone else seen this before? Is it still edible? Is this common and somehow I’ve been luck not to have found it before now?

I’d hate to waste a duck if it is edible... but it doesn’t seem appetizing. It’s in a well marked bag in the freezer awaiting a decision...

It's not the first time I've heard of this this season.

To paraphrase an article I found here: https://www.lsonews.com/mark-england-2/

It’s a disease called sarcocystis that strikes ducks, which ingest the eggs of the mature parasite in food or water. After hatching, the baby parasites migrate to the skeletal muscles and form cysts. The cysts resemble grains of rice and run in parallel lines throughout the muscle, usually the breast and thigh. Dabbling ducks — such as the mallard, gadwall , widgeon and so forth — are most susceptible to rice breast.
It's perfectly safe to eat and in fact doesn't alter the delicious taste of duck meat -- it just looks kind of disgusting.

We had one a few weeks back and made duck salad sandwiches out of it. Works nicely cause you don't have to see the "rice" cysts while you eat it. Check out my duck salad sandwich recipe in the Wild Game Recipe section.

:D

[lorneparker1]

Its called rice breast. See it hear and there. totally safe to eat but way to gross for me!

[180grainer]

Its called rice breast. See it hear and there. totally safe to eat but way to gross for me!

I think you're correct. I've shot a number of birds with that in the breast. Contacted MOE at the time, (25 years ago if not more) and they told me exactly that. It's some type of parasite that is fine to eat once the meat is cooked. Hey, guys just gobble up bear without knowing if it has tric......once the duck is cooked, the parasite disappears. Apparently high numbers of snow geese have these.

[guest]

Had two Pins with this last fall, from the Cloverdale area. Yuk. ....... When cooked, it disappears ....... ? Nope Couldn't do it.

[bigredchev]

There is a reason people hunt with dogs.... They need a cut if the bounty.


They also used to tell pregnant women to have a smoke to relax them.