The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) is pleased to announce that, Dr. Tim Knight, Kraft Foods Group, Inc./Oscar Mayer; Janet Riley, American Meat Institute; Dr. Dustin Boler, University of Illinois and Steve Larsen, National Pork Board will be the featured speakers in theAMSA 67th Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC) Hot Topic Symposium. This sessions is sponsored by Kraft Foods Group, Inc./Oscar Mayer and National Pork Board on Wednesday, June 18. Presentations from these speakers will focus on the below topics.

Captive Bolt Technology for on Farm Euthanasia of Turkey:Advances in captive bolt technology have enabled new on-farm applications of this technology. Dr. Tim Knight’s presentation will give an overview applications specific to euthanasia of turkeys. It will include a general overview of methodology and how the National Turkey Federation guidelines have been modified to reflect these advances.

AMI Animal Welfare Resources and Programs:The American Meat Institute has long served a leadership role in animal welfare for the American meat industry. Janet Riley will discuss topics relative to today’s changing animal welfare climate and provide insight to the dynamics in the field including consumer influence and media. Online resources and recent additions will be shown.

All Sea Salts are Not the Same?:Dr. Dustin Boler will evaluate differences in sea salts purity levels on processed meat characteristics. Salt improves textural properties of further processed meat products, but can also accelerate lipid oxidation and potentially reduce shelf-life. Metal contaminates such as copper, iron, manganese and others can also influence palatability. Dr. Boler will cover the interaction of salt and possible impurities associated with sea salts on texture and sensory of meat, highlighting our resent experience with sea salt and ground pork.

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus Update:Dr. Steve Larsen will give an update on what porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) is, how it has impacted the pork industry and what the pork industry is doing to combat PEDv.

The AMSA 67th Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC) will be held June 15-18, 2014, at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI. For more information regarding the AMSA 67th RMC please visit: http://www.meatscience.org/rmcor contact Deidrea Mabry 1-800-517-AMSA ext. 12.

Source: AMSA