Making today's vaccination system work
Budget-driven expectations of a vaccine program have increased because today's markets have left so little room for error. That short-term pressure on decision-making doesn't always promote a long-term, health-conscious view. Here are some suggestions:
Continually look for the technological opportunities to streamline vaccination without compromising its effectiveness. Development of single-dose vaccines, for instance, has been an obvious tool to minimize losses while reducing costs and cutting labor in half. Mass-dosed oral vaccines provide even greater savings by reducing worker and animal stress.
Vaccines with demonstrated fast onset of protection — which allows placing vaccine closer to disease challenge — offers another opportunity for efficiency. Because most Mycoplasma vaccines have been given in the nursery, for instance, vaccine given to either culls or those sold to other markets goes to waste. By using a fast protecting vaccine in order to delay vaccination until those pigs are actually placed, only the necessary vaccine is used.
Put yourself in statistical control. Process improvement tools continue to be lacking on even the best-run operations, writes Premium Standard Farms' director of health assurance Butch Baker. An analytical tool as simple as a “pivot table” — a database function allowing you to pivot the data to look at it from several angles — is simple to put together but seldom used effectively.
Building those statistical tools into the vaccination system to help spot normal and abnormal variation — in real time — is necessary.
Balance standardization with flexibility to react. The vaccination program, as well as the wider health plan, requires an even greater investment in pre-planning than ever before. Protocols to deal with health events as they occur must be committed to writing, including as many contingencies as possible, and available to all necessary personnel through training and ongoing meetings. At the same time, decision-making authority must be vested at the right levels to allow people to make decisions on the fly.
In the case of M. hyo, many operations jump back and forth between both single-dose and two-dose vaccination, monitored by diagnostics, depending on relative stability of the herd and risk factors. Such adjustment in real time can only be managed by specific protocols that everyone understands how to implement.
Verify the process. The system is only worth the paper it's written on if ever-yone involved doesn't follow through. Spot checking the process and the people — as simple as making sure vaccines are administered when you think they are, for instance — is the last line of quality control.
Baker R.B. Making health decisions in a large production system: A decision tree approach. Proc Leman Swine Conf 2003:90-94.
Donavan T.S. Managing large databases: Using data to make decisions and support changes in health programs. Proc Leman Swine Conf 2003:95-98.
Benefits
Improved employee safety
One additional advantage of incorporating the new oral vaccines into your system: Employee safety.
A 1995 survey of over 850 swine veterinarians found almost three-quarters had stuck themselves with a needle at some time. More than one-third of those reported adverse reactions, such as pain, swelling, bruising, infection and abscessing.
The No. 1 most-cited product for causing adverse reactions: erysipelas vaccine.
Hafer, A.L.; et. al. Occupational hazards reported by swine veterinarians in the United States. Swi Health Prod 1996 4(3):128-141.