In the latest study, senior author Glenn Telling, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Kentucky, said that anyone handling or eating infected deer could be exposed to chronic wasting disease.

The study is important because prions the infectious agents that cause the degenerative deer disease have never been found in skeletal tissue before, said Crossley, the state Department of Natural Resources' top official on the disease.

Learning that prions might exist in the flesh of deer, and not just in organs such as the brain, eyes and lymph nodes, reporters wanted to know if deer are safe to eat, he said.

But the study has not changed the state's position on the subject: It's OK to eat venison.

Risk to Humans 'Incredibly Low'

One reason is that no study has shown that chronic wasting disease can infect humans, Crossley said.

In addition, Wisconsin's testing regimen in all parts of the state has turned up few positive deer outside an endemic region west of Madison, he said.

Since 2002, the DNR has sampled 99,308 deer, and of that total, 557 tested positive for the disease, the DNR says.

Thus, state health officials have concluded that the risk to humans is "incredibly low," Crossley said.

The state Department of Health and Family Services agreed with that assessment. "From a public health standpoint, the message doesn't change at all," said agency spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis.

The agency encourages hunters where the disease is known to exist to have their deer tested and wait until they receive the results before eating the deer.

Health Concerns Raised

In 2002 and 2003, the DNR tested about 500 deer in every county of the state. At that level of testing, the agency concluded it could with 99 percent confidence detect the disease at a level of 1 percent. The disease has been found in Dane, Iowa, Rock, Columbia, Green, Jefferson, Kenosha, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk and Walworth counties.

In 2005, the agency beefed up testing in northeastern Wisconsin, and it will do the same in west-central Wisconsin this year and in northern Wisconsin in 2007.

In addition, in recent years, the DNR has sampled deer in Portage County, where a Plover deer farm has produced 20 positive deer.

Testing every deer killed in Wisconsin would be "unpractical and unrealistic," Crossley said. During the nine-day gun season last fall, hunters shot an estimated 312,519 deer, according to the agency.

Still, ever since its discovery in Wisconsin in February 2002, the disease has raised health concerns from the public, in part because scientists continue to piece together more knowledge of the disease with each new study.

Some Food Pantries Turn Down Venison

In the latest study, senior author Glenn Telling, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Kentucky, said that anyone handling or eating infected deer could be exposed to the disease.

Such concerns have meant that some hunters don't want the meat and donate it to food pantries. In the disease eradication zone, where the disease is its most virulent, all meat is tested before it is donated, Marquis said.

"We got our first shipment today," said Pat MacLean, assistant coordinator of the Mount Horeb Area Food Pantry. "When we give it to people, we say that it has been CWD tested, and they are interested, because they ask."

Some, she said, turn down the ground venison.

In Milwaukee at the Hunger Task Force, "we don't take venison ever since chronic wasting disease -- we don't take it," said spokesman Jason Brame.