The fact-filled, hour-long webinar — How to Prevent Broken Needles: Protecting People, Pigs and Pork — offers keen insights into why it’s so critical to prevent broken needles from happening on the farm and the potential consequences if we don’t. 

Laura Bachmeier, National Pork Board director of Pork Safety, will provide participants with a quick overview of how the Pork Checkoff has funded research into this area over the years and why it’s so important to stay vigilant about preventing broken needles in pigs. Whether it’s focusing on better injection techniques or simply adhering to the letter of Pork Quality Assurance Plus management practices, she will help provide a solid rationale on why this part of production must not be overlooked.

Steven Hoff, Iowa State University professor of Ag and Biosystems Engineering, will discuss his research into needle strength, sharpness retention and how detectable broken needles really are in packing plants. His expertise in this area should help producers understand how important it is to not only use the right needle size but also always be mindful of how long any needle can withstand typical use in today’s herds. While packers and processors may be improving their ability to detect broken needles in carcasses, he will tell you why it’s critical to prevent breakage from occurring at the farm level.

Emily Erickson, New Fashion Pork Animal Well-Being and Quality Assurance manager, helps bring the practical, on-farm aspect of proper needle/injection management to this webinar. As she is in charge of overseeing the animal well-being and pork safety at the Jackson, Minn.-based New Fashion Pork, it’s her passion to help train all employees in the best practices of injection methods that make it better for people, pigs and the pork that goes to consumers. She will inspire you to re-evaluate your on-farm, broken-needle prevention protocols.

The one-hour webinar is brought to you by the Pork Checkoff. You can access the archive here.