Chicken flocks have a high incidence of Salmonella carriage. When a sharps or needlestick injury occurs during vaccination of the flock, the consequences can be considerable.
Salmonella soft tissue infection post needlestick injury with poultry vaccine: a case report. Australas J Plast Surg 2025;8(1):124891.
In this case report, a 19-year-old male sustained a needlestick injury to his dominant right ring finger from a poultry vaccine gun inoculating a volume of approximately 0.5 mL. This vaccine included a water-based live attenuated vaccine against infectious bronchitis and an oil-based Salmonella Typhimurium vaccine. He developed progressive oedema and pain to the affected digit prompting him to present to the emergency department.
He was taken to the operating theatre for an initial exploration and debridement. The entry site was excised. Salmonella species were cultured from all samples sent from the initial operation, including the entry site tissue, soft tissue and a wound swab. This was noted to be sensitive to ampicillin/ amoxicillin, co-trimoxazole and ciprofloxacin. This was reviewed by the infectious disease specialists and the patient’s antibiotics were switched to IV ceftriaxone 2 g daily on day one postoperatively.
While needlestick injuries in veterinary and agriculture workers are common, contracting a zoonotic infection from accidental inoculation of an animal vaccine is extremely rare.
A miserable event for the injured worker, but he is not the only one. A separate series of sharps/needlestick injuries are reported in:
Unintentional Needlestick Injuries in Livestock Production: A Case Series and Review. Journal of Agromedicine Volume 16, 2010: 58-71
Livestock producers and their employees sometimes experience unintentional needlestick injury (NSI) while vaccinating or injecting medications into animals. There is little published regarding the medical complications that can develop from this occupational exposure. The objectives of this study were to (1) perform a retrospective review of animal-related NSIs treated at a tertiary medical center of a rural state; and (2) review the risks of NSI and measures to decrease their occurrence. Medical records of patients with NSI related to animal injection were identified from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics database from 2002 to 2008 and reviewed.
Nine patients received medical care for NSI that occurred while vaccinating farm animals. Most common NSI site was the nondominant hand and most occurred while attempting to inject the animal. Soft tissue infection was common and all nine received oral and/or intravenous antibiotics. Two thirds required hospital admission. Three required surgery and one had a bedside incision and drainage procedure. One patient had a serious inflammatory reaction with necrosis in the leg due to the oil adjuvant in the animal vaccine. Another case had a probable mycetoma with osteomyelitis and soft tissue infection due to the bacteria Streptomyces, which is a NSI complication not previously reported.
Clearly, veterinary work and farming are dangerous tasks. With the incidence of serious consequences from these sharps injuries, and in all probability a massive use of needles I wonder if this might be a valuable research resource to advance our knowledge towards sharps injury reduction?