Grouse eaters braced for US health warning

Published on Saturday 10 May 2008 20:05

IT'S enough to make a Highland laird choke on his porridge. American researchers claim diners who eat grouse or deer meat killed on the Scottish hills could be at risk of lead poisoning.

The US Peregrine Fund, a charity to conserve birds of prey, says experiments on deer shot with lead ammunition have revealed microscopic residues throughout the carcass that could pass into the meat consumed by humans.

Now, the fund is bringing together experts to discuss its findings and the implications for human health.

Vice-president Rick Watson, said the risk was in all game shot with lead bullets, including grouse, pheasants, partridge and rabbits.

Recently published research had suggested that even very low levels of lead exposure in children could increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and death from stroke or heart attack in adults. Lead was also associated with impaired visual and motor function, growth abnormality, neurological and organ damage, hearing loss, hypertension and reproductive complications.

The Peregrine Fund will present the results of its own recent investigation on lead in hunter-killed animals to a conference at Boise University, Idaho, this week.

"We shot deer and X-rayed the carcasses, and that demonstrated that a standard bullet fired from a high-velocity rifle fragments into tiny pieces that spread in the carcass further than is assumed," said Watson. "If this lead is spread in meat further than one would assume it could be that it gets into the meat people eat."

The fund also obtained venison from game dealers. "We found a high proportion of them contained fragmented lead," said Watson. "We have not demonstrated a health problem but a health risk."

John Farmer, professor of geochemistry at Edinburgh University, said: "People always want minimum exposure to lead, and where there are specific types of exposure, such as this, then it is worth considering the alternatives."

In Scotland, around 70,000 deer are shot for venison every year as well as hundreds of thousands of grouse and pheasant. The market for venison, most of which is shot in the wild, has grown from 32m in 2002 to 57m in 2006.

Colin Shedden, Scottish director of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, said: "I have come across no evidence that suggests a health hazard from lead, even in people who eat a lot of game."

Finlay Clark, secretary of the Association of Deer Management Groups, said: "Venison is increasing in popularity, but people do not eat copious amounts.

"With grouse, most people would be lucky to eat one a year."