They eliminate the problem of broken needles that contaminate hog carcasses and are a challenge for pork packers, they eliminate needle-carried cross contamination of diseases such as PRRS and they improve safety because workers aren’t accidentally stuck by needles.
The device settings typically control the delivery depth so that the medication or vaccine can be delivered into the intradermal, subcutaneous or intramuscular tissue.
Intramuscular delivery is most common, although some needle-free devices are specifically engineered to deliver a small dose of vaccine into intradermal tissue.
The dose volume may be either fixed or adjustable, depending on the type of device.
Some needle-free devices can inject large animals such as finishers, sows, and boars, while other needle-free devices are specifically designed to inject younger pigs.
They are most commonly used in sow barns.
Some hog farmers have completely eliminated needles.
