Development of a Comprehensive Toolkit for Evaluating Workplace Musculoskeletal Injury Interventions: Swine Injection Technologies as a Test Case

Issue

Previous studies show that needle-less injectors eliminate the problems caused by needle-stick injuries, are more consistent in vaccine delivery, use smaller volume of vaccine, have higher antigen dispersion, better immune response, and eliminate the need for needle disposal. From an occupational health and safety perspective, the needle-less injector can reduce mechanical spread of infectious diseases and improve worker safety by eliminating accidental needle sticks. However, needle-less injectors may introduce unintended injuries caused by increased frequency of grip force and awkward postures. The researchers note that although needle-less injector usage is on the rise it is not universal among swine producers, primarily due to the uncertainty about implementation costs. In addition, studies on ergonomic evaluation of MSD risk factors are scarce because of the diversity of tasks on farms, limited direct-measurement technologies, and difficulties with obtaining access to farms to conduct interventional research or economic evaluations. The researchers propose to address these gaps in the current state of knowledge by collecting ground breaking data gathered directly from pig barns in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.