Good vaccination practices may contribute to a good efficacy of vaccines. In this study, the hygiene of vaccination syringes on pig farms was investigated. The degree of contamination with bacteria, yeasts and molds and the potential risk factors for this contamination of 79 vaccination syringes were examined, as well as the effect of repeated skin injections on contamination of the vaccine bottle. The percentage syringes with low (10000 CFU/ml) contamination with bacteria was 32, 27 and 42, respectively. Regarding the yeast/molds, the percentage syringe contamination was 49, 37 and 14 for the categories mentioned above. Contamination was significantly lower in syringes that were both cleaned and stored in the refrigerator. Skin injections resulted in variable bacterial contamination, but had little impact on the yeast/ mold count. In this study, it is shown that syringes for vaccinating pigs can be very contaminated, and that measures such as cleaning the syringe and storing it in the refrigerator are beneficial.
展开▼
