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VIDO Targets Improved Needle Free Vaccine Delivery S M
Dr. Phil Willson-Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization
Farmscape for October 9, 2003 (Episode 1360)
Researchers with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization
in Saskatoon hope to improve the efficiency of needle free delivery
of the vaccines that protect livestock from disease.
A small pilot study, which VIDO completed earlier this year, shows
the immune response in pigs vaccinated using the Agro-jet, a device
which uses a blast of carbon dioxide gas to administer vaccine,
to be equal to those vaccinated with a standard hypodermic needle.
Program Manager for Vaccine Development Dr. Phil Willson says needle
free offers advantages ranging from faster processing of pigs to
lower risk of disease transfer to enhanced safety for those working
in the barn.
Clip-Dr. Phil Willson-Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.
I can't really speak to whether it's faster because we didn't have
a large enough study group to really evaluate that but it clearly
does not have the potential to transmit some of the virus diseases
that there is concern about if one were to use the same needle in
more than one pig.
There's been a number of problems reported with the PRRS virus being
transmitted and this approach would eliminate that so it has that
benefit.
It also has the benefit of not producing a hazardous waste, a sharps
waste, so the producer has that benefit as well.
We're quite interested in looking into the future possibility of
getting more bang for your buck using less vaccine material.
As we tried to understand some of the process that's going on there,
it was obvious that not as much vaccine really went into the pig
so the next question we're going to look at is whether we can get
effective immunity by using smaller does.
That's the direction this research is going to take.
Dr. Willson says the pilot study offers evidence that needle free
delivery can produce effective immunity and he's confident future
work will also prove interesting.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council
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