Deer liver and rabbit liver have encysted tapeworms. Rabbit intestines are loaded with tapeworms.

To be honest, I'm not sold on organ meats. To my way of thinking, which I realize is often wrong, the liver is a catch all for toxins. I also have fears about neuro tissue, especially the brain, but I realize the spinal cord is also neuro tissue. Really, about the only organs I think I don't worry too much about are the lungs and heart, which may not make sense due to so many bloodborne illnesses in people.

In my many searches here I have come across a recurring thought that freezing wild pig for 20 days will kill any bad stuff in the meat. I guess that would apply to any type of meat and maybe any organ. Yes, no, maybe?

It may be myopic, but this is the only site I do this type of search on, as it seems to be the only place that has unbiased people who know what they are talking about.

 Quote: eric eschmann

To my way of thinking, which I realize is often wrong, the liver is a catch all for toxins.

I don't think you're wrong. I used to sit in a corner for hours rather than submit to eating liver as a child. But when I was pregnant with my first child, I asked my doctor if I should eat it. She replied "No, why do you want to do that? The liver collects all the poisons the cow eats." Best doctor I ever had.

However, I do give it in moderation to my dog and cats. For them, at least, I think there are mitigating benefits.

My human food resources say that freezing meat for 60 days will make it safe for people to eat it jerked or raw. I don't know if it would apply to the tapeworms in liver.
Anita I'm with you on the cooked liver thing, but I also have to include cooked carrots in my repulsive list, I can't say which is worse, probably the carrots.
Kidney is also a good choice for an organ meat if you can find it.
Liver is a favorite organ meat for canines, I would think that if it was inherently bad that they would have an aversion to it.
Many of them even will eat cooked carrots, yuck!
Don't forget that wild canines prey primarily on the weak and sick animals in a population which would be likely to have more disease and toxins than the prime animals.

I do feed about 5% of the dogs' diet as organ meat, because I'm more convinced of their need for organ meat than I am of the possibility of toxin load from the liver or kidney.

Liver is a highly nutritous, and in my opinion should be part of any raw diet. You don't need a large amount atleast 5% of the total diet. The liver does not store toxins but metabolizes
them. The liver does store vitamins and minerals.

Here are some facts regarding the functions of liver in animals (not diet).

The liver does many important things in the body:

The liver makes bile. This is a yellow-green liquid that goes into the small intestines to help digest the food we eat.
The liver stores glucose when we eat and then puts the glucose into the blood when our blood glucose level goes down (when we did not eat for a while.)
The liver takes protein and fat and turns it into glucose. This is important if we have no food to eat. We can use the fat we have saved, and make it into glucose to use.
The liver also makes some fats and cholesterol

The liver metabolizes (breaks down) many things in the blood:
hemoglobin
proteins like enzymes and insulin
Ammonia
toxins (substances that are poisons) and waste from your body

The liver stores (keeps) vitamins and minerals
The liver makes many proteins:
proteins that make your blood clot – called coagulation proteins.
proteins like albumin
In fetuses when they are very small, the liver makes red blood cells

MOD EDIT: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver
is the source of this text.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (10/01/2007 04:25 PM)
Edit reason: source citation

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Please..... everyone ....... no posting material from uncredited sources.

Thanks!

Thanks for the replys. I sure did not mean to hijack this thread from the O.P.

Any way this thread can eventually be linked to the All Natural Diet section? That's where I had been doing my search on this subject.

From what you guys have told me, I think I will freeze any wild game (RMB or organs) for 60 days to be safe. I may proceed cautiously with organ meat in general avoiding rabbit and venision as warned above.

I posted down below but didn't get any replys a couple of weeks ago inquiring about alligator. Any general thoughts on this? I found absolutely nothing in a search for those feeding the RMB from alligator.