Realizing New Possibilities
Through Non-surgical Solutions.

In 2018, ACC&D established a partnership with Dr. Mark Prausnitz and his colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Among other pursuits, Dr. Prausnitz explores the use of microneedle patches to deliver the flu vaccine to the human body, which has proven successful and well tolerated. Could this same promising technology be used to help animals?

Together, ACC&D and Dr. Prausnitz are exploring the use of microneedle patches to deliver ink to the inside of a dog or a cat ear, in hopes that it will provide a painless and humane way to identify a non-surgically sterilized and/or vaccinated animal. One study has suggested that dogs tolerate the patch when used to administer the rabies vaccine.

After demonstrating that it is, indeed, possible to load microneedle patches with tattoo ink, we tested administration and visibility in the ear of a pig cadaver. Given positive results, we then fashioned the patches into the shape of numbers and loaded them with UV-excitable ink. The results are very promising! Our next step is to administer the patches to cadaver cat and dog ears to test viability in ears of different sizes, thicknesses, hairiness and color. Stay tuned!

     
                                                           






(cadaver pig ear tattooed with UV-excitable ink; simulation)

Photo credit: Song Li, Georgia Institute of Technology 

With generous support from Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, ACC&D worked with faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students from Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Human Ecology Fiber Science & Apparel Design, and College of Engineering in a novel and interdisciplinary initiative to improve on traditional animal ear tags. We also benefitted greatly from volunteers from Oregon to Ohio to North Carolina.

In this project, we began by evaluating potential tag materials for their weight, flexibility, breathability, resistance to tearing, cost, and durability, particularly in different weather conditions. We determined that solution-dyed acrylic fabric--the same type that's used in outdoor patio cushions, for example--best fit these requirements and could accommodate an RFID tag to communicate even more information about an animal. We further concluded that a price-tagging "gun" showed greatest promise for creating a tiny hole through which a fastener can be threaded and hold the tag in place; in fact, this application method has been successfully used to mark and identify guinea pigs.

The prototype tag has been evaluated in three separate studies, with mixed results. A small study started in 2016 in indoor-outdoor pet cats, which applied tags when cats were anesthetized for dental work, yielded promising results in terms of cats’ responses to wearing the tag, retention, and lack of irritation or infection. We continue to monitor retention of the tag in most of these cats. Unfortunately, in a “real-word” study in dogs in conjunction with an international rabies vaccination campaign, we found that dogs exhibited discomfort with application even with a topical anesthetic, and tags were lost relatively quickly (a process that caused no damage to the ear). 

Given the outcome of a field study in dogs, ACC&D believes that this tag does not have enough viability to justify further trials or exploration of stronger fastener options for dogs. Due to preliminary retention outcomes in indoor-outdoor cats, combined with the likelihood that feral cats would require sedation for even non-surgical fertility control in the field, we believe that there is potential to further evaluate this tag prototype in free-roaming cats with use of sedation and analgesia, and under guidance of a Board-certified veterinary anesthesiologist. We are currently planning for this study.

Photo credit: Eloise Cucui (dog tag photo)