This was published by Winona Post and Outdoor News in Nov 2018.

Given the prevalence and testing for CWD in Southeast Minnesota this fall, the CDC recommendations for prion-contaminated surgical instruments are relevant for deer-hunting readers.

Briefly, the recommended sanitation procedure for prion-contaminated instruments is to soak the instruments in Lye (NaOH) or Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite) for an hour and then process them in an 121 Celsius (250F) autoclave for an hour. A reasonable home approximation for this is to soak your knives in straight (laundry) bleach for an hour and then pressure-cook your knives at 15psi for an hour. A dishwasher DOES NOT reach 121C, but your grandmother's Presto pressure canner will.

While this probably seems like an absurd level of sanitation, aside from incineration, this is the accepted way to clean prion-contaminated tools. If you process your own deer, it wouldn't be paranoid to throw your butchering knives in a box and then throw them in either the wood stove or the dishwasher when your CWD test results come back. If you bring your deer to a butcher to be processed, it would probably be a good idea to ask them how they sterilize the knives they use on other people's deer before using the same knives to cut up your deer. There's no proof that deer CWD prion can cause vCJD, but nobody should be eating prions!