In Australia and Japan, local hunters and farmers are turning to pet food manufacturers in an attempt to create a new revenue stream for their game meat in the face of serious business and ecological challenges to their industry .
The problems caused by El Niño in livestock farming and the overpopulation of wildlife on crops were exacerbated by the weakening of demand for game meat for human consumption.
Bloomberg News recently reported that sheep farmers from Western Australia are giving away their low quality animals for free to pet food manufacturers as prices for mutton have dropped 75% since last year and lambs sold for as low as US$22. El Niño is also expected to hit the region hard, so more animals are being shipped early because there won’t be enough pasture for them when the extremely dry and hot weather arrives. Australia’s sheep industry is not expected to bounce back until summer next year—if normal rainfall returns.
Their Japanese counterparts, however, appear to be embracing the problem of deer overpopulation with a solution called “Gibier.” French for wild game meat including birds hunted for their meat, gibier found its way into Japanese vocabulary and into pet food bowls.
Venison and venison processors and sellers such as Nanpu Foods, Momiji and Ichimodajin have branched out into pet food using gibier as a key ingredient. Since 2013, Nanpu from Hokkaido has been producing and selling maaalog and other venison pets provided by local hunters. Sales of their gibier pet food reportedly grew significantly in 2020 during the pandemic.
For Momiji, the addition of gibier pet food to their line of venison products happened after the pandemic. They called it Oishikute – four types of colorless pet food made from wild deer that were hunted by local hunters. The gibier treats are packed in 70-gram bags.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Momiji president Yukio Kanesawa said their gibier pet food products can help stimulate a dog’s appetite. The Oishikute line is sold on Momiji’s online shopping site, targeting pet owners who prefer more luxurious pet food, Kanesawa added.
Ichimodajin, for its part, said Kyodo news that their gibier pet treats get positive feedback from customers whose dogs happily eat venison without allergic reactions. The company added that buying gibier meat from local hunters allows them to help maintain Japan’s deer population to reduce wildlife crop damage. As of 2020, wild animals are reported to have damaged about 16.1 billion yen (about US$140 million) of agriculture.
Safety concerns in the processing and consumption of wild animal meat or Gibier
Gibier is highly nutritious as it is a rich source of iron and protein, however, it comes with some health caveats according to an article from the International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Research (IJPPR).
Unlike meat from animals processed in industrial abattoirs that have standard health protocols they must follow, game meat provided by hunters comes to market under unclear or poorly defined origin and processing methods. Whether game meat is for human or domestic consumption, the main concern is the same: the risk of infection from pathogens such as Hepatitis E (originating from viruses), Escherichia coli O157 (originating from intestinal bleeding ) and Trichinella spiralis (trichinosis). It is also possible that veterinarians were not tested for pathogenic microorganisms and parasites before slaughtering the gibier carcasses, the IJPPR article said.
Besides food poisoning, there is also a risk of lead poisoning if the bullet used to kill the animal remains in the body. Bullet holes can transfer pathogens through the blood to body parts to be used as gibier meat.
To reduce the risk of infection from eating gibier, researchers recommend that national and local governments should establish proper processing mechanisms for gibier including meat processing plants, and that gibier be cooked or processed instead of being eaten raw. In the meantime, hunters must inform pet food companies, restaurants and other game buyers about the origin of their game meat such as their hunting grounds and other details of a kill.
