Ear punch for animal tags has separate harpoon shaped finger on one jaw to extract tissue sample

AURICULAR PLIERS FOR LABELING FOR LABELING OF

PENSION ANIMALS AND THE ACHIEVEMENT OF

BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL AND LABEL SUITABLE FOR THE SAID FORCEPS.

Marking production animals with ear tags is a legal requirement in most countries to ensure the management and tracking of the herd from birth to distribution to the consumer.

The current trend is that these marking operations are accompanied by operations of sampling organic matter intended to be stored for subsequent screening test.

Different types of labels are used and put in place using suitable pliers.

They comprise a male part with an insert finger perpendicular to a wall bearing the marking and a female part with a head into which the insert finger penetrates by bringing the jaws of the pliers together, said head being produced on a wall bearing an identical marking to that of the male part or a different marking.

The type of marking is imposed by the regulations in force.

One of the jaws of the clamp is provided with a needle which penetrates into an axial blind channel of the insert finger, and the other jaw is provided with a means for holding the head, the orifice of which faces the needle finger.

In known manner, the head and the needle finger are provided with locking means one inside the other and / or one on the other so as to make their connection irreversible.

There are commonly two types of heads.

Said closed heads have a blind channel into which the end of the needle finger penetrates which, completely surrounded by the head, becomes inaccessible.

Said open heads have a channel opening at its two ends, one of which is the penetration orifice of the needle finger. In this case, the end of the latter is surrounded by the head of the female part, one of the ends of which remains free.

The prior art has proposed means for sampling organic material making it possible to carry out this jointly with the application of the label, these means being suitable for open labels.

Patent application WO 99/61882 describes a label of the type comprising a male part with an insert finger pierced with a longitudinal channel and a female part, the end of the insert finger being shaped as a punch for cutting a portion of organic material. The punch penetrates under the action of the pliers into a receptacle separate from the female part of the label. The receptacle is placed under the open head. The punch and the receptacle form a closed enclosure, one closing off the other, detached from the label. The different parts of the male and female label and the receptacle have the identification markings.

Patent DE 19740429 shows a label with a receptacle of the same type, this label also being of the open head type.

These references cannot be used for the application of closed head labels.

Closed-head type and open-head type labels have their supporters and detractors generally depending on the sources of supply.

It appeared judicious to design a clamp which allows both the application of both types of label and which also allows in both cases the simultaneous production of the label of the sample of organic material. .

For this purpose, the ear clamp according to the invention for placing a label for marking livestock, said label comprising a male part with an insert finger perpendicular to a wall bearing an identification marking and a female wall with a head into which the end of the insert finger penetrates under the action of the pliers, the head being indifferently of the type open at both ends or closed and carried by a wall with the same marking, said clamp having an upper and a lower jaw, one of which receives in blocking the female part of the label and the other receives the male part, is essentially characterized in that the clamp is provided with a fixing needle which penetrates into an internal channel of the insert finger to force the end thereof into the head of the female part and that laterally to said needle is mounted on the clamp a member for removing organic material.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the needle for fixing the label and the sampling member are carried by the same jaw.

According to yet another characteristic, the needle and the sampling member are parallel on the same jaw of the gripper along a line transverse thereto.

These arrangements make it possible at will to mount labels with closed heads or with open heads on the clamp, since the sampling of organic material is carried out simultaneously with the fitting of the ear tag but independently of the latter.

Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will become apparent on reading the following description of an embodiment of the invention given by way of non-limiting example and illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a view of a closed head tag, Figure 2 is a view of an open head tag, Figure 3 is an elevational view of the clamp according to the invention, Figure 4 is a view of the jaw with needle and collecting member according to one embodiment of the invention, FIG. 5 is a view of a collecting member with a partial view of the opposite jaw, FIG. 6 is a view of a another embodiment.

As shown (Figures 3-4), the ear clip for tagging farm animals includes two articulated jaws 1-2.

One of the jaws comprises a needle 3, the other jaw comprises a device 4 making it possible to hold the head of the female part of the label in position.

In Figures 1 and 2 are shown for clarity of description a label with a closed head (Fig. 1) and a label with an open head (Fig.2).

Each of these labels comprises a male part consisting of a wall 5 receiving the marking, and an insert finger 6 provided with an axial blind channel into which the needle of the pliers penetrates. The female part of each of these labels comprises a head 7 made on a wall 8 bearing the same marking as the male part.

The head is, in both cases, hollow and comprises, in a known manner, means for locking the insert finger 6 in position cooperating with complementary means with which it is provided so as to prevent the insertion of the insert finger 6 from the head 7.

In the case of a so-called closed head (fig.l), it has an inlet orifice of the insert finger and a blind channel 9, closed by a transverse wall opposite the orifice.

In the case of a so-called open head (fig.2), the channel 9 opens at its two ends. The clamp can accommodate either one or the other.

According to the invention, one of the jaws 1-2 of the clamp (FIG. 3) is provided with a device for collecting organic material. This device can be designed as a cookie cutter mounted preferably removable on one of the branches and facing a portion of the other branch forming an anvil for supporting the ear of the animal.

According to the invention, the organic material sampling device is mounted on the same jaw as the needle 3 on which the male part of the label is mounted.

Preferably, the sampling device 10 is mounted in parallel with the needle 3 and laterally to the latter with respect to the longitudinal axis of the gripper. The sampling device can be of any known type.

The organic material sampling device can be mounted on the same jaw as the needle or on the jaw opposite and antagonistic to that of the needle.

The sampling device can also be mounted on the same jaw as the needle and be aligned with the latter along the longitudinal axis of the jaw.

The sampling device may consist of a hollow needle of the biopsy needle type.

The needle 3 is permanently attached to the clamp. The sampling device 10, of any type whatsoever, is mounted on the clamp so as to be removable and is only used for a single sampling.

According to a preferred embodiment (FIG. 4), it consists of a needle mounted on the jaw so as to be removable, provided at its end with a point 11 followed by a constriction 12 and which forms a harpoon.

In Figure 5 is shown the sampling device carried by the jaw 1 with its tip 11 followed by the recessed portion 12 forming a harpoon and a partial view of the jaw 2 of the forceps.

The portion of the jaw 2 shown forms the bearing surface 13 of the atrial wall through which the tip 11 passes.

The bearing surface has a bore 14 forming a cutting die.

The diameter of the bore 14 of greater dimension than the section of the sampling device which is housed when the clamp is closed.

In Figure 6 is shown another embodiment of the sampling device fixed so as to be removable on the jaw 1 of the clamp in a bore with which it is provided.

In this embodiment, the sampling member also has at its free end, when it is mounted on the clamp, a point 11 followed by a constricted portion.

12.

The shaft 15 of the sampling member is surrounded by a tubular jacket 16 made of any suitable material, for example a synthetic material.

The tubular liner in normal sampling position covers the barrel 15 from the lower wall of the jaw lde the gripper against which the upper end of said liner 16 is locked in abutment.

In this position, the lower end 17 of the sleeve comes above the active part of the sampling device, that is to say in the example of FIG. 6 above the tip 11 and at the level reduction 12.

End 17 of the tubular liner has a sharp edge for cutting organic material.

When closing the jaws 12 of the clamp, the tip 11 and the cone pass through the atrial wall and enter a bore 14 of the bearing surface 13 of the jaw 2.

Simultaneously, the cutting end 17 presses on the atrial wall which it cuts up to contact with the bearing surface.

When the jaws reopen, the organic material caught in the harpoon formed by the point 11 and the constriction 12 is removed from the atrial wall.

It is then possible to slide the tubular liner 15 downwards, that is to say covering the constriction 12 and the tip 11, constituting a receptacle of organic material which can be closed by any suitable means.

The shirt 16 is provided with a link 18 for connecting with the male or female part of the buckle. The shirt 16 may bear a marking which may or may not be identical to one of the markings or to the markings on the label.

Advantageously, the bearing surface 13 of the atrial wall, opposite the sampling member, has a recess which can be made by a bore or by a forked conformation with one or more edges between which the sampling member passes after have passed through the atrial wall.

The edges, if the recess has a forked conformation where the edge, if the recess is a bore, is spaced with respect to the sampling member and at a distance therefrom.

The cutting of organic material for example by the cutting end 17 of the tubular skirt and / or its tearing by the harpoon constituted by the point 11 and the constriction 12 or by any other means, for example a hollow needle or a punch s 'carried out by playing on the relative rigidity of the atrial wall maintained on either side of the piercing point and of the tear-off or cut-out zone.

This arrangement makes it possible to prevent the remnants of the sample from remaining on the jaw 2 and from being able to soil the following samples.