Farmscape for December 16, 2010   (Episode 3483)

The regional marketing and technical services manager with AcuShot reports interest among swine producers in the use of needle free administration of veterinary compounds continues to grow.

Needle-free injectors use a high speed blast of gas to propel veterinary compounds through the skin, replacing the need for needles.

AcuShot regional marketing and technical services manager Mike Agar told those on hand last week for Hog and Poultry Days in Winnipeg the level of confidence in the capability of the equipment is starting to build.

Clip-Mike Agar-AcuShot Inc:
With regards to efficacy there's been numerous trials across different species for whether or not vaccines or antibiotics set up and do the jobs that they are designed to do, needle-free versus needle use or conventional methods, and there's no defined difference or degradation in that capability.

In fact with vaccines there's evidence to suggest that with needle-free it is enhanced because we're including the skin.

The skin is the largest immuno-organ in the body and when we use needles we by-pass that organ.

When we use needle-free we actually bring it into the equation so we broaden the capability of the immune system to uptake that biologic.

It has a huge upside in the development of future technologies and lower volume doses that could actually be left in the skin without implicating muscle tissue lowering pain and not being implicated something that the processor wants to sell because the vaccine has never even entered a muscle and muscle is what we sell as food.

Agar observes with repeated use of needles, especially in the nursery, there's a lot of screaming and stress but with the use of needle-free the environment is much quieter and stress is dramatically reduced which translates into better performance.

As well, he notes, needle-free injection eliminates the risk of broken needles and the problems associated with disposal of used needles and reduces the risk disease transfer from pig to pig.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council