BALLISTIVET SHOOTS HOME THE POINT 

Those nostalgic cowboy songs about rounding up cattle MAY FADE AWAY.

BallistiVet is about to hit the range.

During the past 200 years, when raising cattle helped the American and Canadian west to prosper, the annual roundup of free-ranging cattle was a big event, both socially and financially. On such traditions were legend and social status erected. Another foundation is about to crumble.

Part of most roundup's is the counting of new calfs and branding them for later identification. It's also a time, especially in these days of more modern veterinary medicine to innoculate against the diseases and intestinal parasites that cause havoc with herds if not promptly and adequately treated. Up to now that was all done by herding the cattle into corrals, catching and tying them up while branding irons marked and "horse needles" injected the required vaccines into the bovine flanks. It was hard, long, dusty and sometimes dangerous physical work that cost lots of time and money.

Today a new way. It's simpler, more effective, less expensive and involves minimum physical labor. It's carried out via the 'bio-bullet', a small biodegradable implant filled with an individual dose of pre-measured, freeze-dried product, packaged in sterile, multidose clips. These clips fit into a sophisticated airgun-like device that allows vaccination via these implants when shot from distances of 2 to 20 metres.

Even in westernized countries administering biologicals and pharmaceuticals to animals meant needles and syringes. Now these single-dose implants penetrate cattle flanks or shoulders quickly, lodging one to three centimetres in the muscle and begin to be incorporated into body fluids almost immediately. The whole bullet completely dissolves within 10 hours, leaving no lasting tissue damage. The stress of roundup, containment and close physical restraint is no longer necessary. Cross contamination between animals, syringe or needle is eliminated. Animals are innoculated at a time best for them, not only during roundup.

Up to 600 animals an hour can be vaccinated. That's five times faster than with conventional methods. Calves can be treated while still milking or being loaded, and older cattle while at the feedlot, on the range or at a salt lick, dairy cattle while they are being milked. Proponents claim processing time to be at least two-thirds less than with older methods and the cattle lose less weight than when wrestled to the ground for treatment.

Wildlife can also benefit substantially from such treatment. In wild animal habitats a veterinarian has an even more difficult task. The only way to properly innoculate such animals is first by rendering them unconscious with a tranquilizer dart-gun, then tying them up while the normal needle and sryinge technique is administered. Long-range delivery of the actual vaccine itself used to be a dream. Now it is reality. Back in 1979 tests were conducted on bighorn sheep at the New Mexico White Sands proving grounds to stop a mange epidemic. In 1983 elk wintering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming were vaccinated with Strain 19 Brucella as part of a program to stop the spread of disease within the herd and to neighboring ranches.

In South Africa's Kruger National Park, the BallistiVet system was credited with providing a major breakthrough in the control of epidemics within the park. Initially, in 1986, 200 roan antelope threatened with extinction from anthrax were vaccinated. Park officials continue to use this method, sometimes treating up to 1,500 animals a day, a vast improvement over the handful that could be treated using previous methods.

Cost: From a list of animals diseases provided by Wildlife Specialities, for this paper the per dose cost runs from 47 to 51 cents US. The entire air-delivery system ranges from US $600 to US $825 depending on system sophistication, air tanks, etc.

With 125 million beef cattle in North America to service, this company can't say they have no prospects. Now no more needling the cattle. Only the farmers need to be injected -- with the message.

More information:

Donald Sturtevant, President, Wildlife Specialities Inc., 4334 Centerville Road, White Bear Lake, MN 55127-9989.

Phone: 612/426-8996.

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