The present invention relates generally to hypodermic syringes, and more particularly for apparatus for sterilization of hypodermic syringe needles.
In veterinary medicine, large quantities of livestock, such as sheep, cattle or horses, have to be innoculated for the prevention of disease or for the cure of a disease through the use of a hypodermic syringe. During such innoculations, very unsanitary and dirty conditions are encountered out in the fields, and generally extensive sterilization standards which are cautiously followed when innoculating humans are not followed when innoculating livestock. Hundreds of livestock are innoculated at one period of time with the same hypodermic syringe in rapid succession. The needle generally is not sterilized between innoculations, and the result is that many infections are created simply as a result of the innoculation, a result of which is that some of the livestock is lost by death through the infection contracted through the innoculation.
The syringes utilized generally consist of a pistol-grip rubber or plastic plunger type syringe which meters out a predetermined quantity of innoculation serum with each actuation of the pistol-grip actuated plunger. Thus, one syringe is capable of holding a sufficient quantity of innoculation serum to innoculate a plurality of livestock. Due to this fact and further due to the fact that such large quantities of livestock have to be innoculated, it is not practical to replace the needle with a sterile needle after every innoculation, or to sterilize the needle between innoculations.
It is a principal object of the present invention to eliminate these foregoing problems and to provide a hypodermic syringe which automatically sterilizes the same needle after each innoculation while still permitting rapid successive uses of the same syringe.