Currently, most poultry vaccines are used in hatcheries. Many of them, such as Marek vaccine or Vector HVT vaccine, are stored in liquid nitrogen (-196°C; -320°F) to maintain integrity.
The process of supporting the effective transportation and storage of frozen vaccines is challenging. A perfect cold chain protocol involving all materials, equipment, and procedures must be developed to ensure that the vials are frozen from the time of manufacture to vaccination.
To this end, first, frozen vaccines pass quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) verification in the production facility before being shipped internationally. They are then controlled when they are received in the local warehouse, during storage, and when they are ready to be delivered to the hatchery.
Liquid nitrogen is needed to maintain the live cells in the vaccine. Liquid nitrogen can be handled safely if protective equipment is used, in a suitable facility, and after specific training. Good practices applied at each stage of the distribution process will ensure the safety of all personnel involved in the logistics of frozen vaccines.
The hatchery is the first stage of the company’s life cycle. The vaccination plan is now mainly used in hatcheries, making it an important milestone in the food chain.
The break of the hatchery vaccine cold chain will have a serious impact on the entire production chain. Vaccinating the flock with a thaw vaccine will result in not being vaccinated. At the farm level, it can affect production due to the potential use of antibiotic treatments, impaired animal technical performance, and higher mortality and morbidity risks. In addition, at the time of slaughter, the low vaccination rate may increase the scrap rate and lead to poor carcass quality.
Since there are several points that need to be controlled to ensure the integrity of the frozen vaccine, the process also requires professional knowledge and experience. Untrained employees may put the integrity of vaccines in the hatchery at risk. Without training and adapting equipment, hatchery employees are at risk of injury, which can lead to sequelae.
Therefore, the main challenge for the hatchery is to obtain appropriate training to ensure the safety of its team members and to apply well-preserved vaccines to its flocks.
Like other innovations Ceva has brought to the poultry market, we want to help our customers solve these critical problems in hatcheries.
As we all know, most of our customers feel lonely at this stage. Therefore, Ceva has developed another reference service, LINILOG, to complete our value proposition.
The LINILOG (liquid nitrogen logistics) service was established in 2010 and started at our Ceva Lenexa production plant in the United States. Since then, it has been deployed globally. This service is now implemented in our 3 frozen vaccine production plants and the warehouses of all our affiliates and partners. This service is also applicable to hatcheries that receive frozen vaccines from Ceva and has been successfully implemented in many of them around the world.
The LINILOG service is based on 4 pillars, helping to maintain the integrity of the vaccine and the safety of related personnel:
Anyone involved in the handling of frozen vaccines should be trained in emergency first aid procedures and safety practices.
To prevent frostbite, personnel must be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) and always wear them when handling liquid nitrogen. Provide a complete set of personal protective equipment for Ceva affiliates and their customers. In 2020, approximately 250 sets were sent to 43 different countries.
If the room is poorly ventilated, suffocation may occur. The room must be equipped with exhaust fans to maintain a safe oxygen level for the human body. It is recommended to use an oxygen sensor.
Minimize any exposure to room temperature and regularly control vaccine storage conditions in production plants, warehouses and hatcheries.
Special care should be taken when vaccines in the warehouse must be removed from liquid nitrogen during receipt, during transfer from container to another container, during inventory control and order preparation.
At the hatchery, customers are trained and encouraged to pay special attention to receiving and inventory control and vaccine preparation.
After each of these actions, the level of liquid nitrogen and the consistency of the inverted ampoule are monitored and recorded. Due to continuous visual control, feasibility testing and digital tracking, the Dewar flask has received special care at all stages.
Using a digital tracking system, the Dewar bottles in the Ceva fleet can be identified and located at any time on a global scale. Outdated containers represent a risk of failure or breakage that may not be visible, thereby jeopardizing the integrity of the vaccine. Thanks to this tracking system, Ceva can ensure that all dewars in use are viable and can provide new containers to the hatchery when needed.
Together with a complete record of any monitoring operations performed on the Dewar, we can track the storage life of the frozen vaccine.
At Ceva, all employees involved in liquid nitrogen logistics, from supply chain managers to incubation experts and warehouse teams, have received LINILOG good practice training and qualifications. All our warehouse and distributor partners go through the same process and use our standards for regular audits.
Provide personal protective equipment for customer hatcheries, and receive training and advice on storage areas when starting to use frozen vaccines. The Ceva vaccination service and equipment team can also guide our customers and monitor their liquid nitrogen treatment technology during their regular visits.
After more than 10 years of continuous improvement of these practices and implementation in more than 70 countries/regions, a survey was conducted in 2020 to evaluate the effectiveness of LINILOG services. It measured the number of injuries caused by liquid nitrogen treatment, and the number of claims registered for thawing vaccines when they were received in local warehouses or hatcheries.
Between 2015 and 2019, in 31 countries/regions, only 1 injury caused by liquid nitrogen treatment was announced, and an average of 0.3% of shipments to hatcheries faced claims for suspected thawing vaccines. This proves that the implementation of the LINILOG service at all stages of the chain helps to master the liquid nitrogen logistics. But most importantly, for each claim, a solution was found and an action plan was implemented to prevent the problem from recurring, which shows the team’s commitment to meeting customer needs.
During regular visits to the hatchery, the Ceva vaccination service and equipment team trains and audits the hatchery team on good practices in liquid nitrogen treatment.
In 2019, all hatcheries visited by Ceva around the world showed an average score of 95% for operator safety and good practice applications, and an average score of 97% for good practice applications that preserve the integrity of vaccines, proving that regular training is the basis of good practice . Liquid nitrogen logistics.
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Post time: Sep-18-2021