Self-administration of a Salmonella vaccine by domestic pigs

Abstract

Hand vaccinating is time consuming and inefficient. Oral vaccines delivered by drenching are less likely to be used due to a lack of labor on farms. Current environmental enrichment (EE) technologies do not allow pigs to express certain natural behaviors such as rooting and getting a reward. We developed a sprayer so that domestic pigs can self-apply any liquid. By adding an attractant (pig maternal pheromone), the use of EE devices by individual pigs can be increased. In this study, we used a Salmonella oral vaccine to evaluate efficacy of three delivery methods: (1) Control, no vaccine, (2) hand drenching as labeled, and (3) self-administration by this EE rooting device. All pigs sprayed themselves within 80 min of exposure to the EE device. While control pigs had little or no Salmonella serum and oral fluid IgG or IgA, hand-drenched and self-vaccinated pigs built similar levels of both serum and oral fluid IgA and IgG. We conclude we were able to significantly reduce human labor needed and achieved 100% efficacy in eliciting a serologic response when pigs self-administered a Salmonella vaccine. This technology could benefit commercial pig production while providing an enriched behavioral environment. Self-vaccination could also assist in control or immunization of feral swine and improve domestic pig health and food safety.

Self-Administration of a Boar Priming Pheromone Stimulates Puberty in Gilts without Boar Exposure

“…When the trigger sprayer was pressed, the 4 mL liquid was delivered. The functionality of the EE sprayer has previously been used to deliver an oral vaccine [ 5 ]. BB sprayers were also available in the training pens of the BB treatment group.…”

“…Prior to this field study, we developed an environmental enrichment (EE) sprayer with which gilts could self-administer any liquid at will [ 5 ], such as vaccines and pheromones. In earlier work with sows, we found that pregnant sows would use the sprayer one to two times per day on average, whereas sows in estrus averaged 17 sprays per day (unpublished work in preparation).…”