Vital livestock injection and sterility knowledge

To keep your livestock healthy and disease-free, it's essential to adhere to sterile procedures and proper techniques when administering injections

- Shane Brody.

Administering injections to livestock requires attention to detail, proper technique, and adherence to sterile procedures to ensure the health and safety of both the animal and the handler. Injecting livestock in the incorrect manner, or not as per the specific instructions of manufacturers, can either make vaccines ineffective or even harmful to livestock. I have heard of farmers who have given 'double doses' of mineral and vitamin injectables to livestock, thinking that this will assist such ailing animals to heal quicker. In many such cases, the animals died because such solutions are often highly concentrated.

STERILE EQUIPMENT

Maintaining sterility of equipment, such as needles and syringes, is crucial:

• Use sterile needles and syringes: ensure all needles and syringes are sterilised before use, either by autoclaving (steam treatment) or boiling for at least 15 minutes, or using disposable, pre-sterilised equipment. Do not use common disinfectants to sterilise equipment because this can affect the efficacy of vaccines and medicines.

• Injection site: be certain it is as clean as possible; consider using something like iodine to disinfect the site if it looks dirty or contaminated with faeces or soil.