The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the conservation group Ducks Unlimited released information last week heralding a great change in regulations for U.S.-based hunters bringing wild birds back into the U.S. from Canada.
Now we can leave the skin on.
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Big deal. All that means is that we have the option of plucking ducks (last year we were forced to skin them), which is even more unnecessary work, not less. It might allow a different method of cooking, leaving the skin on, but doesn't make the import restriction any less onerous. Or any less unnecessary.
The rules, first imposed one year ago, were supposed to be an effort to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza that swept across North America in 2022. In 2023, hunters still must essentially sterilize every bird they intend to bring home beyond recognition, except for one fully feathered wing. There can be no blood at all, which is next to impossible.
Ever get a little blood dripping from your store-bought steak or chicken after it was packaged? Of course you have. It鈥檚 impossible for the butcher to prevent that even after the meat is cleaned and packaged. (At our duck camp, the outside water is shut off in late fall. But the rule doesn鈥檛 even allow us to wash birds in the lake. We must use potable water.)
Under the marginally revised restrictions for 2023, unprocessed hunter-harvested wild game bird carcasses originating from or transiting Canada must meet the following conditions:
- Viscera, head, neck, feet and one wing have been removed.
- Feathers have been removed, with the exception of one wing, as required by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for species identification.
- Carcasses must be rinsed in fresh, clean, potable water prior to packaging and must not have visible evidence of contamination with dirt, blood or feces.
- Carcasses must be imported in leak-proof plastic packaging and stored in a leak-proof cooler or container during transport and import.
- Carcasses must be chilled or frozen during transport and import.
It makes no sense to say feathers can鈥檛 be imported, but then still require us to leave a fully feathered wing on the bird for identification. We are essentially forced to remove about three-fourths of the bird鈥檚 feathers but leave the other fourth?
It鈥檚 just nuts.
It鈥檚 time to again allow us to bring the whole bird home. That鈥檚 what I have done for more than 30 years with ducks and geese shot in Canada. Then the cleaning and cooking options are up to me when, where and how I do them.
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Here are the facts. That flock of birds I shoot at is literally just miles from the U.S. border, winging their way south into the U.S., where they will spend the winter. Every bird in the flock I do not shoot will be bringing any diseases it carries into the U.S. no matter how much I clean and scrub the one bird I did shoot.
It鈥檚 just absolutely incredible that anyone in the U.S. Department of Agriculture would think that a dead bird in the bag (or cooler) of a hunter would somehow come in contact with domestic poultry flocks. The chances of that flock of still-flying ducks I missed landing near poultry is probably 1 million times greater.
Moreover, the prevalence of avian influenza has fallen dramatically throughout 2023, to the point this latest outbreak has been declared essentially over. There have been only a few wild birds reported with the disease in Minnesota over the past six months. Luckily, as we reported earlier this summer, wild birds appear to have developed resistance or immunity to this strain of avian influenza.
This latest version of the bird flu simply isn鈥檛 having any impact any more. And the disease has been virtually eliminated nationally from domestic poultry flocks. In fact, there鈥檚 so little avian influenza in domestic flocks now that I鈥檓 now allowed to bring uncooked chicken and raw eggs back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border.
But not a whole, dead duck?
I鈥檓 usually the first person to defend regulations aimed at conservation or public health or the common good. I am the opposite of an anti-government guy. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture import rules on hunter-harvested game birds from Canada are an example of nonsensical overreach, bureaucratic bungling.
Ducks Unlimited said the import restrictions take into account 鈥渢he best available science,鈥� which I think is absolutely not true. The best science would say that there鈥檚 virtually zero risk of a hunter-harvested wild bird somehow transmitting avian influenza to a domestic poultry flock.
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The hunter-harvested wild bird import rules seem to entirely lack any sense of reality. Get rid of them.
For more details on restriction criteria and additional Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recommendations for hunters, go to
The Trust Project
