A pig can be vaccinated in the blink of an eye with a needle-free device, Dr. Jeff Bergermann told delegates at the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium.

It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s believed to be painless and, most importantly, broken needles won’t be found in a pork product.

“We have all heard the horror stories of a needle ending up in a piece of meat on someone’s plate and that is something we would like to avoid at all costs,” Bergermann told delegates at the annual symposium.

Needle-free devices remove that risk, providing the consumer with boosted confidence in pork products.

As an aside, Bergermann, a native of Humboldt, Sask., said those doing the injection will also be safer using needle-free technology.

“We would like to eliminate our accidental needle pokes. Out of every 100 times you handle a needle, you will poke yourself five times. I can attest to that,” he said with a laugh. He said results with needle-free devices have proven effective.

“You will have an improved immune response with a vaccine which is quite interesting. It actually drives the vaccine better to the immune cells that respond to the vaccine. It can help reduce lateral spread of diseases. The key word is reduce, not eliminate,” he said. Approximately 75 per cent of needle-based disease transmission can be eliminated with needle-free injections, researchers found in early studies.

Bergermann said the technology is also environmentally friendly. “We have all seen the big buckets of needles that are hanging around the barn and nobody wants to haul them around and they are a pain to get rid of. So it is nice to be able to avoid that.”

Bergermann has been using needle-free devices since 2012. He says there are pros and cons to the technology from a practical point of view.

One of the disadvantages is that they are more complex, lack portability and come with a price.

“A needle is very small and portable. You can stick it in your pocket, you can fill one, walk out into the barn and it’s not a whole process of setting up equipment.

“These devices require training and there is regular repair and maintenance. It is not practical for a single use; you wouldn’t want to set it up to give one pig an injection. Most people like to set it up and vaccinate a group of pigs.”

There are a number of products on the market.

“It is a significant investment,” he said. “It will depend on where and what product you choose.”

Units cost in the neighbourhood of $2,000 and many operations will require more than one. Dr. Bergermann said it is wise to stock parts. More than 6,000 pigs can be injected a week, according to industry experts. Bergermann said there are spring-loaded injectors, battery-powered ones and gas-powered ones.

He said the process relies on the injection device, the nozzle and the pressure source.

“It does not require a needle, but it produces a high pressure stream of liquid that is capable of puncturing the skin. This stream of liquid is quite small – about an eighth to a half of the size of 21-gauge needle. That’s the needle you or I would normally be vaccinated with. So it creates a very, very small hole.” He said the process happens in less than a second. There is a peak pressure stage, a dispersion phase and a drop-off phase. At his operation, Bergermann said they use both the hand pieces and the hands-free. “Going forward we will continue to use the Pulse NeedleFree equipment. We’re using the Pulse 250 with the hand pieces in the nursery and the Pulse 250 and Pulse 50 in the farrowing room.

“We are quite happy with the way the injectors work for the most part. We feel like we get good service and support, the needle-free devices come with good instructions and are fairly easy to troubleshoot.”

The investment is worth it if it prevents even one broken needle from making it to a consumer’s plate, he said. •

— By Can Hutchinson