阅读说明：本技术 循环系统和方法 (Circulation system and method ) 是由 S·乌尔夫 于 2019-07-25 设计创作，主要内容包括：本公开提供了一种用于将流体输送给动物的系统。该系统包括容纳一定体积流体的储存器、输送出口、再循环回路以及在储存器和输送出口之间流体连通的阀,该阀具有从储存器接收流体的入口,与输送出口流体连通的第一出口以及与连接储存器的回流导管流体连通的第二出口。该系统还包括用于打开和关闭第一阀出口和第二阀出口的控制装置,以及用于将流体从储存器泵送到阀并经储存器返回导管泵送到储存器的泵。当控制装置打开第一出口时,流体从储存器流到输送出口。当控制装置打开第二阀出口时,流体通过回流导管流到储存器。(The present disclosure provides a system for delivering a fluid to an animal. The system includes a reservoir containing a volume of fluid, a delivery outlet, a recirculation loop, and a valve in fluid communication between the reservoir and the delivery outlet, the valve having an inlet receiving fluid from the reservoir, a first outlet in fluid communication with the delivery outlet, and a second outlet in fluid communication with a return conduit connecting the reservoir. The system further comprises a control device for opening and closing the first valve outlet and the second valve outlet, and a pump for pumping fluid from the reservoir to the valves and to the reservoir via the reservoir return conduit. When the control device opens the first outlet, fluid flows from the reservoir to the delivery outlet. When the control means opens the second valve outlet, fluid flows through the return conduit to the reservoir.)

1. A system for delivering fluid to an animal, comprising:

a reservoir containing a volume of fluid;

a delivery outlet;

a valve in fluid communication between the reservoir and the delivery outlet, the valve having an inlet for receiving fluid from the reservoir, a first outlet in fluid communication with the delivery outlet, and a second outlet in fluid communication with the reservoir through a reservoir return conduit;

control means for opening and closing the first valve outlet and the second valve outlet; and

a pump for continuously pumping fluid from the reservoir to the valve and from the valve to the reservoir via the reservoir return conduit such that when the control means opens the first valve outlet and closes the second valve outlet, fluid flows from the reservoir to the delivery outlet; when the control device closes the first valve outlet and opens the second valve outlet, fluid flows through the reservoir return conduit to the reservoir.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the delivery outlet is a nozzle.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the nozzle is an air atomization nozzle or a hydraulic nozzle.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the delivery outlet is a syringe.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the injector is needle-free.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the control device comprises a computer control system in communication with the valve.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the flow rate in the reservoir return conduit is about 60 milliliters per minute.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a pressure source in communication with the fluid reservoir and the pump.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the pressure source is about 15 psi.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the fluid is a vaccine, biologic, drug, or supplement.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the animal is a chicken.

12. A system for delivering a substance to an animal, comprising:

a reservoir containing a volume of fluid;

a delivery outlet;

a three-way valve having an inlet in fluid communication with the reservoir, and two outlets, a first outlet in fluid communication with the delivery outlet, and a second outlet in fluid communication with the reservoir return conduit; the valve has a first position in which the first outlet is open and the second outlet is closed to allow fluid to flow from the reservoir to the delivery outlet; the valve has a second position in which the second outlet is open and the first outlet is closed to allow fluid to flow through the reservoir return conduit; the valve has a third position in which both the first and second outlets are closed;

control means for controlling the position of the valve;

a pump for continuously pumping fluid from the reservoir to the valve, through the reservoir return conduit, and back to the reservoir.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the delivery outlet is a nozzle.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the nozzle is an atomizing nozzle or a hydraulic nozzle.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the delivery outlet is a syringe.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the injector is needle-free.

17. The system of claim 12, further comprising a pressure source in fluid communication with the fluid reservoir and the recirculation pump.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the pressure source is about 15 psi.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the fluid is a vaccine, biologic, drug, or supplement.

20. A method of delivering a fluid to an animal comprising the steps of:

providing a reservoir having a volume of fluid therein;

arranging a conveying outlet;

a valve disposed in fluid communication between the reservoir and the delivery outlet, the valve having an inlet for receiving fluid from the reservoir, a first outlet in fluid communication with the delivery outlet, a second outlet in fluid communication with the reservoir return conduit, and a reservoir return conduit in fluid communication with the reservoir; and

continuously pumping fluid from the reservoir to the valve such that when the first valve outlet is open and the second valve outlet is closed, fluid flows from the reservoir through the first valve outlet to the delivery outlet; when the first valve outlet is closed and the second valve outlet is open, fluid is returned from the reservoir to the reservoir through the reservoir return conduit.

Background

Bacterial, viral and fungal infections and other diseases can generally be prevented or treated by vaccinating or delivering drugs to a subject. In all animals, especially vertebrates or fish and invertebrates, such as crustaceans, it is common to use delivery of vaccines, biologies and other drugs to prevent disease, death or maintain overall good health. When working with many livestock and fish, it becomes a challenge to ensure that all animals are effectively treated.

Some solutions of vaccines, biologics and other drugs contain microparticles. In particular, some vaccine solutions have live cultures in them. Variations in particle size in the solution can affect transport because the solution does not have uniformity during transport due to settling or plugging of the particles. Some subjects may receive more or fewer particles if the particles are not uniformly suspended in the solution.

We discuss the poultry industry below and there are currently several methods to treat fertilized eggs or chickens with drugs. These methods include:

1) on day 18 or 19, in ovo (in ovo) automatic vaccination was performed at the hatchery;

2) carrying out artificial vaccination after hatching in a hatchery;

3) adding vaccine/drug to feed or water at adult farms; and

4) the vaccine/drug is sprayed on the chicks by manual or large-scale sprayer.

In addition, new systems and methods for delivering vaccines and other substances to animals have been developed. Such systems and methods are disclosed in PCT/US2016/061548, which discloses in part a system for automated delivery of substances to animals and the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety. The system includes a series of conveyors and other moving platforms and the like to separate each animal, particularly day-old chicks. Once the chicks are separated into individual columns, the system can deliver one or more doses of vaccine, drug, biologic, supplement, or other substance to a single animal. The system includes a nozzle for delivering a substance to a mucosal area of the chicken face, such as the eyes, nasal cavity or mouth (if the mouth of the chicken is open). The nozzles may be air atomized or hydraulic.

Substances such as vaccines, drugs, biologies or supplements are often delivered in solution. The active ingredients in vaccines, drugs, biologies or supplements are often diluted in a solution of water, saline, etc. for easier and more efficient delivery. For vaccines, live cultures (including oocysts) are suspended in solution for efficient delivery. One such Oocyst vaccine is described in detail in PCT/US19/41178 entitled "Systems and Methods of Preparing and Delivering Oocyst Solutions," which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In some cases, difficulties may arise in delivering solutions using nozzles because the active ingredient needs to remain suspended in the solution to deliver the active ingredient efficiently and uniformly. Settling of the live culture to the bottom of a container, tank, bag, line, nozzle or other container is not allowed because it results in uneven delivery. Uneven vaccination occurs when some animals receive a high dose of the active ingredient and other animals do not receive an effective dose.

In the past, uneven delivery over nozzles or spray heads has been prevented by priming (priming) the nozzles or spray heads. However, this method wastes material or is generally ineffective if the system operator forgets to fill the spray head. When this occurs, many animals do not receive active vaccine particles. This leads to poor performance and disease outbreaks when these birds are exposed to pathogens during growth. In addition, the amount of vaccine wasted through the irrigation nozzles costs hatcheries a large amount of money each year.

The embodiments described herein provide a system and method for delivering a substance to an animal in which the spray head need not be primed each time the procedure is interrupted. The system can keep the substance suspended in the solution when the system is in an active state or in a static state.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for delivering fluids to animals. The system has a reservoir containing a quantity of fluid, a delivery outlet, and a recirculation loop. The system also includes a valve in fluid communication between the reservoir and the delivery outlet, the valve having an inlet receiving fluid from the reservoir, a first outlet in fluid communication with the delivery outlet, and a second outlet in fluid communication in the recirculation loop. The system also includes a control device for controlling the position of the valve outlet, a reservoir pump for pumping fluid from the reservoir to the valve, and a recirculation pump that pumps fluid within the recirculation loop. When the control device opens the valve outlet to the first outlet, fluid flows from the reservoir to the delivery outlet; when the control closes the first outlet and opens the valve outlet to the second outlet, fluid flows within the recirculation loop.

Drawings

Accordingly, the present disclosure describes various embodiments in general terms, which will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to scale and which do not include all system components, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system of a first embodiment;

FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the nozzle and valve of the first embodiment in a delivery mode;

FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of the nozzle and valve of the first embodiment in a recirculation mode; and

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system of a second embodiment.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for delivering fluids to animals. Various aspects of the disclosure will be described in greater detail below with reference to the appended drawings, in which some, but not all aspects of the disclosure are shown. Indeed, this disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the aspects set forth herein.

One embodiment involves delivering a substance to a newly hatched chick that has been separated from the egg shell but has not left the hatchery. Furthermore, the methods and systems relating to chickens according to the present disclosure may be used with any type of poultry, including, but not limited to, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, quail, pheasants, ostriches, rare birds, and the like.

The systems and methods of the present embodiments are used to deliver fluids to animals. In this embodiment, the system is used to spray a fluid onto the mucous membranes (eyes, nasal cavity or mouth) of day-old chicks. This is achieved by separating the chicks individually and placing them in front of the spray head, which is part of the first embodiment described below. The liquid was delivered through a spray head and into the mucous membrane of the face of the day-old chick.

Figure 1 shows a simplified schematic of the overall system of a first embodiment 10. The system includes a reservoir 12 containing a fluid 14. The fluid 14 may be a vaccine, drug, biologic, or supplement diluted in solution. The diluent may be water, saline, or the like.

Reservoir 12 includes a fluid inlet or opening 16 into which fluid 14 is poured prior to use. The fluid inlet has a cap or cover 18 which is securely fastened to the reservoir 12 during use. The reservoir 12 also has a compressed air inlet 60. The compressed air inlet 60 is connected to the compressed air supply device 20 through the first compressed air conduit 22. A first pressure regulator 24 is positioned along the first compressed air conduit 22 to control the pressure along the first compressed conduit.

The reservoir 12 also includes a fluid outlet 26. The fluid outlet 26 is connected to a first fluid conduit 28. The first fluid conduit 28 is connected to a recirculation pump inlet 30 on a recirculation pump 32. The recirculation pump 32 has a pump fluid outlet 34. The pump fluid outlet 34 is connected to a second fluid conduit 36. The second fluid conduit 36 is connected to a valve fluid inlet 38. The valve fluid inlet 38 is mounted on a three-way valve 40. As shown in fig. 2A and 2B, the valve 40 has a fluid inlet 56 and two outlets: a bypass port 46 and an outlet port 44. The bypass port 46 is in fluid communication with the bypass outlet 42, and the bypass port 46 receives fluid from the valve 40 when the bypass function is activated, as will be described in greater detail below. The position of the outlet of the valve 40 is electronically controlled by a PLC (programmable logic controller) not shown.

As shown in fig. 1, the bypass outlet 42 is in fluid communication with a bypass conduit 45. The bypass conduit 45 is in fluid communication with a bypass inlet 47. The bypass inlet 47 provides a fluid opening for the bypass conduit 45 into the reservoir 12.

It should be noted that the valve 40 can be in one of two positions, either the injecting position as shown in FIG. 2A, or the recirculating position as shown in FIG. 2B. The injection position is when the outlet port 44 is open and the bypass port 46 is closed. The recirculation position is when the bypass port 46 is open and the outlet port 44 is closed.

The valve outlet port 44 is connected to a nozzle outlet conduit 48, which nozzle outlet conduit 48 is connected to a delivery nozzle 50 having a delivery nozzle spray head 54 as shown in fig. 1. In the air atomizing nozzle arrangement, nozzle spray 54 is also connected to the compressed air source 52. Compressed air from a compressed air source mixes with the fluid exiting spray head 54 to form an atomized spray profile for delivery to the animal, as will be discussed in more detail below.

In use, the compressed air supply 20 is introduced into the reservoir 12 through the compressed air inlet 60. A fluid 14 suspended in a diluent is held in the reservoir 12, the fluid 14 being a solution of a vaccine, drug, biological agent or supplement. Upon activation of the compressed air supply 20, the fluid 14 exits the reservoir through the fluid outlet 26, flows along the first fluid conduit 28 and into the recirculation pump inlet 30. The recirculation pump 32 causes the fluid 14 to flow from the pump through a pump fluid outlet 34, through a second fluid conduit 36, and into a valve fluid inlet 38.

In the process for delivering fluid to an animal, the animal is placed in close proximity to the nozzle spray head 50. At this point, the valve controller 46 opens the outlet port 44, and this action simultaneously causes the bypass port 42 to close. As shown in fig. 2A, this causes fluid 14 to flow through outlet port 44, through nozzle outlet conduit 48, and into nozzle tip 50. At nozzle tip 50, fluid 14 is mixed with compressed air from compressed air source 52. This causes the fluid 14 to be atomized and to spray the atomized fluid 14 onto the mucosa of a nearby day-old chick.

When the first embodiment 10 is not being used to deliver fluid to an animal, the valve controller 46 closes the outlet port 44, which simultaneously causes the bypass port 42 to open. This causes fluid 14 to flow from valve 40 back to reservoir 12 through outlet port 56, bypass port 42, bypass conduit 45, and bypass inlet 47. Thus, the recirculation maintains the fluid 14 as a homogeneous suspension, thereby preventing precipitation of vaccine components. The fluid 14 will continue to recirculate in this manner until it is needed for delivery to the animal. At that point, valve 40 will be reoriented to deliver fluid 14 to the animal through nozzle tip 54, as described above.

It is anticipated that the types of vaccines or other substances for chicks that are applied to the mucosa by spraying may include, but are not limited to, the following: anti-viral (e.g., newcastle disease virus, infectious bronchitis virus) vaccines, anti-bacterial (e.g., escherichia coli, salmonella, campylobacter) vaccines, and anti-parasitic (e.g., coccidia) vaccines.

A second embodiment 60 is shown in figure 3. The second embodiment 60 is similar in some respects to the first embodiment 10 in that it has a reservoir 12 and a fluid 14 having particles suspended therein. The reservoir 12 is in fluid communication with a pump 32 via a fluid outlet 26 and a first conduit 28. The pump fluid outlet 34 is connected to a bypass conduit 45 and a bypass inlet 47. In addition, pump outlet 34 is connected to a valve 62, valve 62 being in fluid communication with delivery nozzle 50 having a delivery nozzle spray head 54. The delivery nozzle is operated and controlled as previously described for the first embodiment 10.

In use, fluid 14 in the reservoir 12 flows through the pump outlet 34 by the pump 32 and returns to the reservoir through the bypass inlet 47 via the bypass conduit 45. When valve 62 is actuated, fluid 14 simultaneously flows through the valve into nozzle 50 and out nozzle tip 54. The fluid 14 is mixed with a compressed air source 52 to atomize and produce a spray that is directed to the mucosal area of the animal's face.

A test was performed to determine if the circulation pump would keep the microparticles suspended in the vaccine solution. The vaccine in solution is an eimeria vaccine with at least three oocyst species. These species include eimeria maxima (e.maxima), eimeria tenella (e.tenella) and eimeria acervulina (e.acervulina). After the nozzle was stationary for ten minutes, the solution was sprayed onto the intended surface. Changes in vaccine counts (vaccine counts) were detected by counting three different oocysts delivered by the nozzle over time. B1 denotes nozzle 1 and B2 denotes nozzle 2. Each spray was counted and the number of each species was calculated for each sample. Counts before and after the 10 minute break were found to have less than 15% count deviation. The results are shown in Table 1 below. This is close to the standard error when counting with a small amount of sample and indicates that the recirculation loop to the nozzle solves the settling problem. Previously, in the delivery study without recirculation function, the number of oocysts detected after the 10 minute break was greatly reduced.

TABLE 1

It is also anticipated that embodiments of the present application can be used to automatically deliver substances to the mucosa of other animals and mammals, including humans. In particular, there may be certain applications suitable for the automated delivery of substances to the facial mucosa of infants or children or disabled persons. In addition, the automated delivery systems described herein are suitable for use with other animals, such as livestock, companion animals, rodents, and other commercially raised animals.

It is expected that many modifications and other aspects of the disclosure set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which this disclosure pertains having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specific aspects disclosed and that modifications and other aspects are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.