KTKA

This is K-State Ag Today - I'm Jeff Wichman. At some point, most beef producers will give injections to their animals. K-State Research and Extension veterinarian Dr. Larry Hollis says following appropriate rules and guidelines will ensure a positive experience for both animal and caretaker.

"One of the things we can run into, and the first shortcut is location of where we give the injection - but one problem we can run into is injection-site reactions; either scar tissue forming at that site, and the site of a very high-priced cut of meat, or if cleanliness is not observed, we could actually form an abscess at the site of injection: we're producing beef and we need to make sure that we produce the best quality product we can, and part of how we do that is how we administer our injections."

Regardless of age or gender, Hollis says there's only one place on an animal's body for that injection needle.

"According to Beef Quality Assurance Guidelines, we want to give all of our injections in the neck - none in the back of the animal. Because of the differences in the prices of the cuts of meat, so we want to move everything up, so that if we do have any kind of injection problem, it's up in an area that we can trim out when the animal is harvested, and discard it, and we're not into the steaks and this sort of stuff."

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