If you're going to eat roadkill, follow these rules

MEDFORD, Ore. — With a new rule allowing deer and elk hit and killed on Oregon roads to be consumed, ODFW says you can eat the animals at your own risk.

But what are the health implications of doing so?

NBC5 medical expert Dr. Robin Miller says if you are planning to eat roadkill, you need to be careful about how and when the animal was killed.

If it was smashed, there could be internal damage to the animal and the gut bacteria will be all over the animal, so you won’t want to eat it.

“If it’s freshly killed, like a deer or something like that, again, make sure the internal organs are intact,” she said. “Animals in the wild do carry diseases, diseases that we can get [like] toxoplasmosis is a big one [and] that’s not a good disease.”

Dr. Miller says if the animal smells, don’t eat it.

And if its eyes have glossed over, it’s been dead for a while and is also not something you should eat.

ODFW says it’s illegal to intentionally hit and kill an animal.