NEEDLE EXCHANGE
system
Designed with efficiency in mind! Quickly and safely remove dirty needles and replace with a clean new needle with one vessel. Best yet, no pliers necessary.
Cole took over his five-generation family ranch, Trails End, in the 1990s in Midland, South Dakota, and is now a partnership with his son, Chase Briggs. He started artificially inseminating and pregnancy-checking when he was 13 and later expanded to ultrasounds in the 1990s. In 2008 he and his wife, Vicky Briggs, purchased Ranchland Technologies. In 2018 he and Zay Norman created A to Z Technologies to create ways to make the corral safer and easier.
Zay started running a ranch in Midland, South Dakota at age 11 and later became a partner with four brothers to create Crocket Mountain Ranch and Gaylord-Norman Limited Family Partnership. He is now separated and has his own Limited Family Partnership. On January 5, 2017, during an operation where only 1 out of 2 million lose their sight, he became legally blind. After going through a rough transition, he and Cole started A to Z Technologies in 2018 to share their vision in making innovative technology in the livestock industry.
The PrickGuard Needle is a small plastic product that has a hole on one side that has a wide circular rim to protect the user from stabbing his or herself when inserting the dirty needle that is then twisted off from the vaccination gun. After being twisted off, the needle remains in the PrickGuard, so it does not fall on the ground or poke anyone else. It is intended to be an individual sharps container and thrown away after use. On the other side of the PrickGuard there is a square hole for a new needle to be inserted, this way once the dirty needle is removed, the user can just flip the PrickGuard over and twist on a clean needle. This allows for the user to safely remove and replace a needle in one vessel. Cole and Zay are completely satisfied with the safety factor of their invention.
The wild needles that have roamed their corrals have been tamed. The hole that grabs the aluminum makes it nearly impossible for someone to remove spent needles and not poke themselves or others. Monoject and Ideal sterile aluminum hub needles work best. It can fit up to 1 ½ inch needle in length and any gauge. They are also being made in 4 colors (purple, yellow, green, and red) so they can be organized by needle size for more efficient use and be easily distinguished.
Currently there is no known competition for this product because everyone has been using pliers to exchange needles. With the time it takes to go to the vaccine table, pull the pliers out, remove the dirty needle, dispose of it somehow, and then grab a new needle is more time than any producer wants to spend when getting through a herd of animals. This leads to users normally changing the needle when it breaks, not even when refilling the vaccine gun. This causes lots of cross contamination between animals and vaccine bottles, as well as more risk if one gets pricked by said contaminated needle.
With it being so much easier to exchange a needle when using PrickGuard, the users are more inclined to change needles more frequently, thus decreasing the amount of bacteria exchanged during vaccinations and the risk of infection or lumps on the animals also decreases. This improves overall animal health and meat quality, which maximizes profit for the producer because they will get more premiums for their animals if they do not have lumps and less sick animals.
This will decrease medical expenses for the producer. Also, the less stressors put on the animals produce leaner meat quality which is a premium for the producer and higher meat quality for the consumer. The simplicity of this product does not outweigh its benefits to not only the animal, but the producer and consumers within this industry.
By using the PrickGuard users are able to change needles quicker, safer, and more efficiently, which decreases the amount of time it takes to vaccinate and therefore is less time for the animals to be in the chute so they will ultimately be less stressed, which is good for both animal health and meat quality. Now the user will only have to pull out the PrickGuard, which can easily fit in a pocket, twist the dirty needle off, flip over the PrickGuard and twist on new needle. Then if it gets thrown to the ground the bright colors make it easily seen to be picked up at the end of vaccinating and there are no needles loose on the ground.
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