How difficult could it be to figure out whether a piece of meat is tough or tender, dry or juicy, flavorful or not? A group of ag journalists found out this week as guests of Elanco Animal Health to a Sensory Evaluation Briefing at Iowa State University. Basically, we all got a crash course in how to be “sensory panelists.” …
Perception is Reality
When it comes to testing food, it’s all the senses that count, not just taste. “That’s because there’s only about four things we can taste,” says Dr. Ken Prusa with Iowa State University. “Sweet, salty, sour and bitter.” Which makes taste alone a pretty limited factor in the total experience of how we perceive a food. In fact, we use …
Designing Meat Quality Trials
Designing trials for a new animal health product to evaluate meat quality is expensive and complicated, according to Dr. Floyd McKeith with the University of Illinois Department of Animal Sciences. He was one of the speakers at a workshop for ag editors this week in Ames, Iowa sponsored by Elanco Animal Health. According to Dr. McKeith, some of the factors …
Elanco Sensory Evaluation Workshop
Bringing an animal health product to market requires a lot of testing – not just on how that product affects the animal, but also how it affects the meat that comes from that animal. That’s what a group of farm media folks, including myself, learned about this week at Iowa State University in Ames, courtesy of Elanco Animal Health. Pictured …
Scottish Lad Does Good
The International Federation for Animal Health has a new president. He’s George Gunn. Now he’s a president and a CEO.
Johanns at the ID INFO EXPO
Second day of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture ID INFO Expo was a busy one, between the Secretary of Agriculture and the protesters. A small but vocal group gathered outside the Westin in Kansas City with signs and umbrellas saying “No to NAIS.” I figured that about 99 percent of the people passing by on Grand Avenue had no …
The Place For NAIS
I have been here at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture ID INFO Expo in Kansas City working on their virutal press room. Pretty cool idea, actually. I sent out a document file to agricultural media yesterday with links to interviews I did with all the representatives of the Species Working Group for the National Animal Identification System, as well …
Tres Chic for Pig Posting
I had to pose for a picture in the ISU wet lab during the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. PCVAD update meeting with my overalls and plastic booties to keep germs away from either me or the lab, not sure which. I admit to being a pretty big weenie when it comes to looking at guts, but I held up well …
CSI: Circovirus Swine Investigation
Pigs are dying. The question is why? Is it simply the presence of PCV2, which is found in virtually every swine herd worldwide? Or is it the co-factors? PRRS? Mycoplasma? Salmonella? What is their motive? That is what the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. (BIVI) project known as MAGIC – or Monitoring Assignment for a Global Insight into Circovirus associated diseases …
Stalking a Killer
The swine industry has become increasingly alarmed just in the past year or two about the incidence of what has become known as PCV-AD, or Porcine Circovirus Associated Diseases. At a PCV-AD update meeting sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. last week, veterinarians and members of the media were updated on the latest information available about this emerging disease complex. …