| dc.description.abstract | The first generation of electronic devices for needle-free intradermal (id.)
vaccination became available for the farm practice at the end of the 20th century.
The wider uptake of this technology dates back to the last decade. The authors
review all aspects of id. vaccination: the basics of skin immunity, the history of
id. and needle-free vaccination, give a brief human health perspective, present
the currently available id., needle-free devices for pig vaccination, discuss the
characteristics and advantages of the method and report on the experience with
id. immunization against certain infectious diseases.
The skin immune system (SIS) consists of many different types of immune cells
of which keratinocytes and antigen-presenting dendritic cells are of particular
importance. The skin is usually richer in antigen-presenting cells than muscle
tissue, therefore, the skin is an excellent target of vaccine administration.
The only needle-free id. vaccination technique in veterinary medicine is the fluid
jet injection, which delivers a high-speed vaccine stream into the id., sc. or im.
regions, depending on the air pressure of the device [15]. The paper gives an
overview of needle-free devices for intradermal and transdermal use.
The characteristics and advantages of the needle-free id. vaccination of pigs can
be summarized as: (i) lower dose volume, (ii) better animal welfare, (iii) reduced
risk of pathogens transmission, (iv) labour efficiency and safety, (v) more frequent
but smaller and transient post-vaccination local reactions, (vi) improved food
safety and (vii) less amount of dangerous waste material.
A growing body of scientific papers shows that needle-free id. vaccination in pigs is
at least equivalent in efficacy, while superior in terms of safety, animal welfare, and
labour efficiency as compared to the common intramuscular vaccination in pigs. | en_US |
