Farmscape for November 28, 2018

A Manitoba based swine veterinarian says the proper storage of veterinary drugs will preserve their effectiveness and save time and money.
The use of veterinary drugs such as vaccines and antimicrobials is key to the health of the swine herd.
Dr. Judy Hodge, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with Swine Health Professionals, says properly storing these products will preserve their effectiveness.

Clip-Dr. Judy Hodge-Swine Health Professionals:
One of our barns that we looked at, their fridge had 25 thousand dollars worth of vaccines and antimicrobials and they weren't stored correctly.
It was over stocked.
They stored drugs in the door of the fridge and against the back where they could potentially freeze.
If a vaccine freezes it's no longer effective and if it gets too warm it's no longer effective.
The way a vaccine works is it has something called an adjuvant and an antigen.
The antigen is the part of the disease that we want to protect against and the adjuvant helps the pig make a good immune response.
If the vaccine freezes and those two things separate then the vaccine won't work anymore.
The other thing that happens when vaccines are frozen is the actual antigen can break apart and then that can cause more inflammation than usual and you can end up with sterile abscesses when you're giving the injects.
The number one important thing to have in your fridge is a thermometer so you can track what is the minimum and maximum temperature that it's reached.
If you have a high volume of drugs it might be a good idea to have an alarm as well.
When you're stocking your fridge it's important to only stock the fridge at 50 percent and to keep your vaccines and drugs away from the back or the sides where they might freeze.
Keep them outside of the door and don't put them in the bottom drawers.

Dr. Hodge says its also important to store only veterinary products in the fridge, not food or other items that could contaminate the products.
She says administering compromised veterinary products is a waste of both time and money and it doesn't help the animal.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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