Kansas Angus Association to Sponsor Angus-influenced Female Sale

The Kansas Angus Association (KAA) will sponsor its annual spring Angus-influenced replacement female sale at JC Livestock Sales, Junction City, Kan., Saturday, April 12 at 1 p.m. It is currently seeking consignments of Angus-influenced young cows, pairs, bred heifers and open heifers.

Females must be consigned in minimum five-head lots, with all females being 8 years of age or younger. To qualify for this special sale, the females must meet Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) live specifications: be predominantly black-hided; black white faces and/or “baldies” will be accepted; have typical beef-type conformation (no visible dairy influence); and be without long floppy ear and hump (no visible Brahman influence).

The sale welcomes bred cows and heifers, fall pairs, and open heifers.

Those interested in consigning cattle to the sale may contact Debbie Lyons Blythe, sale chairman, at 785-349-2652 or e-mail debbie@blytheangus.com.

Entries will be accepted up to sale day; however, those entries submitted prior to March 28 will be advertised.

Angus seedstock producers are encouraged to help inform their commercial bull customers of this sale as an option for producers to market source-verified Angus replacement females. Consignors do not have to be members of the KAA.

The sale is sponsored by KAA. Another KAA commercial female sale will be Dec. 6in Pratt, Kan. For more information on the KAA and its projects visit www.kansasangus.org or contact Anne Lampe, secretary/manager at 620-872-3915 or e-mail kansasangus@wbsnet.org.

Bacteria Beware: MIT Student Invents ‘Knock-Out Punch’ for Antibiotic Resistance

MIT graduate student and synthetic biologist Timothy Lu is passionate about tackling problems that pose threats to human health. His current mission: to destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Today, the 27-year-old M.D. candidate and Ph.D. in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology received the prestigious $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventing processes that promise to combat bacterial infections by enhancing the effectiveness of antibiotics at killing bacteria and helping to eradicate biofilm — bacterial layers that resist antimicrobial treatment and breed on surfaces, such as those of medical, industrial and food-processing equipment.

Bacterial infections can lead to severe health issues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the antibiotic-resistant bacterium MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, causes approximately 94,000 infections and contributes to 19,000 deaths annually in the United States, through contact that can occur in a variety of locations, including schools, hospitals and homes. Bacteria can also infect food, including spinach and beef, and damage industrial equipment.

Lu explained that fewer pharmaceutical companies are inventing new antibiotics due to long development times, high failure rates and large costs. According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, the cost to develop a new drug is $930 million (based on the value of the dollar in 2006). These factors, coupled with a decline in the number of prescriptions authorized for antibiotics, constrain profits.

“Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are also becoming more prevalent,” Lu noted. “My inventions enable the rapid design and production of inexpensive antibacterial agents that can break through the defenses of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and bacterial biofilms.”

— Release provided by MIT.

Sysco-Central California Leads Bowl Game Beef Donation

Sysco Food Services of Central California Inc., Modesto, Calif., teamed up with Holten Meat Inc. and Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) for a beef donation with the Fresno State University football team, winners of the 2007 Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl. The football team used its victory in a pre-bowl game bowling event to benefit a local charity serving the hungry and homeless.

On Feb. 27, Fresno State Coach Pat Hill and T.J. Leonard of Sysco Food Services of Central California, the 2008 Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) Specialist of the Year, presented Fresno’s Poverello House with a donation of 402 pounds (lb.) of Holten Meat’s Thick ’N Juicy® CAB brand patties.

The team won the burgers by scoring 201 points in the Certified Angus Beef® Bowl for Beef, which pitted Fresno State players against the Georgia Tech team. For each pin knocked down, players earned a 2-lb. beef donation to a hometown charity of their choice. Food Services of America-Boise (FSA-Boise) organized the bowling event as part of its sponsorship of 2007 Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl activities.

“We are extremely grateful to Coach Pat Hill and the Bulldogs for choosing Poverello House as the beneficiary for this project,” said Jim Connell, executive director of Poverello House. “This donation will allow us to continue to serve our mission of feeding the poor, hungry and homeless of the community. We’d also especially like to thank Sysco Food Services for providing the beef.”

Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl, a post-season college Football Bowl Association game, matches a team from the Western Athletic Conference with a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The game was inspired by the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, www.sportshumanitarian.com, located on the Boise State University campus, which recognizes individuals and organizations from the world of amateur and professional athletics that distinguish themselves as role models through their humanitarian efforts.  

— Release provide by Certified Angus Beef LLC. 

— compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.